Romans, Part 66

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I am still considering, by a very long way around, Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  In this particular essay I’m attempting to add some detail if not some clarity to the questions asked at the end of the previous essay: Were the Benjaminites wholehearted supporters of the children of Belial’s right to know any strange man who wandered into town or to gang-rape young women?  Or did they decide that it was better to die fighting than to acknowledge the children of Belial among them and give their brothers legal cause to slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it[2]?

I assumed since the story of the Levite and his concubine came late in the book of Judges that it happened late in the time period that the Judges led Israel.  But the high priest at the time was none other than Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron.[3]

The Priest Lists
1 Chronicles 6:3b-15 (NET) 1 Chronicles 6:50-53 (NET) Ezra 7:1-5 (NET)
Aaron Aaron Aaron
Eleazar Eleazar Eleazar
Phinehas Phinehas Phinehas
Abishua Abishua Abishua
Bukki Bukki Bukki
Uzzi Uzzi Uzzi
Zerahiah Zerahiah Zerahiah
Meraioth Meraioth Meraioth
Amariah Amariah
Ahitub Ahitub
Zadok Zadok
Ahimaaz Ahimaaz
Azariah
Johanan
Azariah[4] Azariah
Amariah Amariah
Ahitub Ahitub
Zadok Zadok
Shallum Shallum
Hilkiah Hilkiah
Azariah Azariah
Seraiah[5] Seraiah
Jehozadak[6] Ezra

Phinehas was introduced apparently as a boy who took a javelin in his hand.[7]  And now I see what I never saw before in these events (Numbers 25:1-5 NET).

When Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality (zânâh, לזנות; Septuagint: ἐκπορνεῦσαι, a form of ἐκπορνεύω) with the daughters of Moab.  These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיהן); then the people ate and bowed down to their gods (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהיהן).  When Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor (baʽal peʽôr, פעור), the anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) flared up against Israel.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders (rôʼsh, ראשי) of the people, and hang them up before the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה) in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) may be turned away from Israel.”  So Moses said to the judges (shâphaṭ, שפטי) of Israel, “Each of you must execute (hârag, הרגו) those of his men who were joined to Baal-peor (baʽal peʽôr, פעור).”

Moses and the whole community of the Israelites, were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.[8]  I don’t know if they wept because of the sorrow believers feel when those who profess faith are found in sin or because their leaders[9] were about to be executed or because of an unspecified[10] plague that ravaged them.   But as the people wept Zimri,[11] a man of Israel, paraded Cozbi,[12] a Midianite woman, before them.

When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, and went after the Israelite man into the tent and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen.[13]  Every other time I’ve read this I assumed that Phinehas was also a priest, acting with yehôvâh’s authority, prompted by his Holy Spirit.  But suspecting now that he was an upstart boy as liable to judgment and condemnation for his action as not, I hear yehôvâh’s words differently (Numbers 25:10-13 NET): 

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) spoke to Moses: “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal.  Therefore, announce: ‘I am going to give to him my covenant of peace.  So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהיו), and has made atonement for the Israelites.’”

So the plague was stopped from the Israelites.  Those that died in the plague were 24,000.[14]  And Phinehas lived to become the high priest advising the brotherhood assembled  at Gibeah demanding the lives of the children of Belial.  Unless he lived three hundred[15] or more years (and that remarkable feat wasn’t mentioned) this was not at the end of the rule of the Judges.  So I consider again the preamble of the book of Judges (Judges 2:18, 19 NET):

When the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) raised up leaders (shâphaṭ, שפטים) for them, the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) was with each leader (shâphaṭ, השפט) and delivered the people from their enemies while the leader (shâphaṭ, השופט) remained alive.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) felt sorry for them when they cried out in agony because of what their harsh oppressors did to them.  When a leader (shâphaṭ, השופט) died, the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one.  They would follow after other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them.  They did not give up their practices or their stubborn ways [Table].

It is disheartening and a bit disconcerting (though not entirely implausible) to place the events at Gibeah at or near the top of this downward spiral rather than at its bottom.  But dating it nearer Israel’s conquest of annihilation against the prior inhabitants of Canaan may go a long way toward explaining the vindictiveness of the brotherhood toward their brothers.  Consider Phinehas’ formative education (Numbers 31:1-3 NET).

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) spoke to Moses:  “Exact (nâqam, נקם; Septuagint: ἐκδίκει, a form of ἐκδικέω) vengeance (neqâmâh, נקמת; Septuagint: ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) for the Israelites on the Midianites – after that you will be gathered to your people.”

So Moses spoke to the people: “Arm men from among you for the war, to attack the Midianites and to execute the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) vengeance (neqâmâh, נקמת; Septuagint: ἐκδίκησιν, a form of ἐκδίκησις) on Midian.

So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge of the holy articles and the signal trumpets.[16]  They killed all the men, including Balaam son of Beor.[17]  But Moses was furious[18] (Numbers 31:15-18 NET):

Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live?  Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה) in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  Now therefore kill every boy, and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse (mishkâb, למשכב) with a man.  But all the young women who have not had sexual intercourse (mishkâb, משכב) with a man will be yours.

I want to pause a moment to consider Balaam, to challenge and enlighten my own parochialism.  The Israelites killed Balaam son of Beor, the omen (qâsam, הקוסם) reader, along with the others.[19]  When you enter the land the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) is giving you, Moses said to Israel, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.  There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination (qesem, קסם), an omen (qâsam, קסמים) reader, a soothsayer (nâchash, ומנחש), a sorcerer, one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.  Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) and because of these detestable things the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) is about to drive them out from before you.[20]  Balaam was not a son of Israel but was of Pethor in Aram Naharaim.[21]  He was certainly no follower of Jesus.

Yet while not denying the truth of any of this I must accept that yehôvâh used Balaam as his prophet to Balak.  But the angel of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you may only speak the word that I will speak to you.”  So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.[22]  Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.”[23] Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) met Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.”[24]

Balaam was affected by his association with yehôvâh.   He uttered his oracle[25] (mâshâl, משלו; also translated discourse and speech).  How can I curse one whom God (ʼêl, אל) has not cursed, or how can I denounce one whom the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) has not denounced?[26] Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) has put in my mouth?[27]  Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) speaks, I must do’?[28]  When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) to bless Israel, he did not go as at the other times to seek for omens (nachash, נחשים), but he set his face toward the wilderness.[29] 

This is not to say that Israel was wrong to kill Balaam when they found him in Midian.  If yehôvâh wanted to spare him, He could have warned Moses or Balaam himself.  If Balaam was warned but refused or was too fearful to flee, that is another story I won’t know for the time being.  And Balaam was not made perfect.  He still tried to accommodate his employers’ desire to destroy Israel by counseling them [in the name of Baal-peor(?)] how to use women to trip them up.  The Children of God called it “Flirty Fishing.”  Balaam was not fit to be a prophet of Israel (Deuteronomy 18:13-15 NET): 

You must be blameless before the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך), Moses continued.  Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen (qâsam, קסמים) readers and diviners, but the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) has not given you permission to do such things. The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך) will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you – from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him [Table].

To pick up again with Phinehas’ formative education: The Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh[30] to investigate why they had built an impressive altar[31] near the west bank of the Jordan River.  Tensions were running high, as high if not higher, then when the descendants of Reuben and Gad petitioned[32] Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the community[33] for possession of the conquered land east of the Jordan.  Moses, forbidden to enter the promised land and near death, assumed that the descendants of Reuben and Gad plotted to discourage Israel from entering that land.  He said (Numbers 32:14, 15 NET):

Now look, you are standing in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord (yehôvih, יהוה) against the Israelites.  For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.

This is the end of a fearful diatribe that twice mentions yehôvâh’s anger: So the anger of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) was kindled that day,[34] and, So the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) anger was kindled against the Israelites.[35]  Whatever the fear of the Lord meant to yehôvâh, to Moses at that moment it meant fearing what yehôvâh could do to the whole of Israel if any disobeyed Him.

The descendants of Reuben and Gad joined their brothers in the conquest of Canaan west of the Jordan, but after they were blessed by Joshua and released to return home they built a strange altar.  When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to launch an attack against them.[36]  They sent Phinehas and ten leaders with this message instead: “The entire community of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) says, ‘Why have you disobeyed the God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, באלהי) of Israel by turning back today from following the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)?  You built an altar for yourselves and have rebelled today against the Lord (yehôvâh).’”[37] The same fear, what yehôvâh might do to the whole community, is evident (Joshua 22:17, 18, 22a NET):

The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough.  To this very day we have not purified[38] ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  Now today you dare to turn back from following the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  You are rebelling today against the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה); tomorrow he may break out in anger against the entire community of Israel….When Achan son of Zerah disobeyed the command about the city’s riches, the entire Israelite community was judged…

The descendants of Reuben and Gad replied (Joshua 22:24-27 NET):

We swear we have done this because we were worried that in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord (yehôvâh, וליהוה) God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of Israel?  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites.  You have no right to worship the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה).’  In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying (yârêʼ, ירא) the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  So we decided to build this altar, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a reminder to us and you, and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) in his very presence with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace.  Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה).’

It is remarkable that soldiers on their way home to wives and families would even consider such a thing.  But in such tense times the descendants of Reuben and Gad had faced heightened suspicion from Moses and apparently the rest of Israel ever since they expressed a desire for land east of the Jordan that was ideal for cattle: Now the Reubenites and the Gadites possessed a very large number of cattle.[39]  Phinehas had even insinuated that there might be something wrong with the land: But if your own land is impure, cross over to the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) own land, where the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) himself lives, and settle down among us.[40]  (Gibeah, by the way, was west of the Jordan in the Lord’s own land, where the Lord himself lives.)

I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment (Septuagint: κρίματος, a form of κρίμα); yehôvâh said, I will execute vengeance (Septuagint: δίκην, a form of δίκη) on my foes, and repay those who hate me![41]  He chose the soldiers of Israel as his weapon against the inhabitants of Canaan.  But his work is perfect (Septuagint: ἀληθινὰ, a form of ἀληθινός), for all his ways are just (Septuagint: κρίσεις, a form of κρίσις).  He is a reliable (Septuagint: πιστός) God (ʼêl, אל) who is never unjust (Septuagint: ἀδικία), he is fair (Septuagint: δίκαιος) and upright.[42]

To be that weapon those soldiers and all Israel must be that perfect in his sight.  Jesus knew what He was talking about when He taught: Do not judge (κρίνετε, a form of κρίνω) so that you will not be judged (κριθῆτε, another form of κρίνω).  For by the standard (κρίματι, another form of κρίμα) you judge (κρίνετε, another form of κρίνω) you will be judged (κριθήσεσθε, another form of κρίνω), and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.[43]

To achieve that perfection through a kind of “natural selection” (e.g., the death of those who did not achieve it) and the fear of that death, or the fear of whatever else yehôvâh’s anger might do to the living, puts the flesh, the Belial if you will, under tremendous pressure.  Perfection achieved in this manner exists only as long as the pressure that created it.  Relax that pressure ever so slightly and the flesh, the Belial, erupts as it did among the sons of Belial at Gibeah.  And so we find Phinehas, who lived his entire life under that kind of pressure, attempting to put the toothpaste back in the tube by the only means he knows.

Granted, the descendents of Benjamin didn’t respond to the situation like innocent men.  As a case in point hear the response of the descendents of Reuben and Gad (Joshua 22:22, 23 NET): 

El (אל), God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  El (אל), God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהים), the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  He knows the truth!  Israel must also know!  If we have rebelled or disobeyed the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה), don’t spare us today!  If we have built an altar for ourselves to turn back from following the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) by making burnt sacrifices and grain offerings on it, or by offering tokens of peace on it, the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) himself will punish (bâqash, יבקש; Septuagint: ἐκζητήσει, a form of ἐκζητέω) us. 

Reach agreement quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, Jesus taught, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison.[44]  When Phinehas the priest and the community leaders and clan leaders who accompanied him heard the defense of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, they were satisfied.  Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, said to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the Manassehites, “Today we know that the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) is among us, because you have not disobeyed the Lord (yehôvâh, ביהוה) in this.  Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) judgment (yâd, מיד; Septuagint: χειρὸς, a form of χείρ).”[45]

I’ll pick this up in the next essay.

Romans, Part 67

Back to Romans, Part 68

Back to Romans, Part 72

Back to Paul’s Religious Mind Revisited, Part 3

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Deuteronomy 13:15 (NET)

[3] Judges 20:28a (NET)

[4] Johanan was the father of Azariah, who served as a priest in the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. (1 Chronicles 6:10 NET)

[5] 2 Kings 25:18, Jeremiah 52:24 (NET)

[6] Jehozadak went into exile when the Lord sent the people of Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. (1 Chronicles 6:15 NET)

[7] Numbers 25:7 (NET)

[8] Numbers 25:6b (NET)

[9] The leaders of the people were rôʼsh, not  baʽal, and not belı̂yaʽal.

[10] Frankly, I don’t know if this plague was a deadly disease, the execution of the leaders of the people, the rampant ἐκπορνεῦσαι (Hebrew: zânâh, לזנות) of the people (and the word is people not men) with the daughters of Moab, or both of the latter.

[11] Numbers 25:14 (NET)

[12] Numbers 25:15 (NET)

[13] Numbers 25:7, 8a (NET)

[14] Numbers 25:8b, 9 (NET)

[15] Judges 11:26 (NET)

[16] Numbers 31:6 (NET)

[17] Numbers 31:7, 8 (NET)

[18] Numbers 31:14a (NET)

[19] Joshua 13:22 (NET)

[20] Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (NET)

[21] Deuteronomy 23:4b (NET)

[22] Numbers 22:35 (NET)

[23] Numbers 23:5 (NET)

[24] Numbers 23:16 (NET)

[25] Numbers 23:7a (NET)

[26] Numbers 23:8 (NET)

[27] Numbers 23:12 (NET)

[28] Numbers 23:26b (NET)

[29] Numbers 24:1 (NET)

[30] Joshua 22:13 (NET)

[31] Joshua 22:10 (NET)

[32] Numbers 32:5 (NET)

[33] Numbers 32:2 (NET)

[34] Numbers 32:10 (NET)

[35] Numbers 32:13 (NET)

[36] Joshua 22:12 (NET)

[37] Joshua 22:16 (NET)

[38] Did Phinehas’ zeal bring a “premature” halt to the execution of those who were joined to Baal-peor?  The Lord spoke to Moses: “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal for my sake among them…”

[39] Numbers 32:1 (NET)

[40] Joshua 22:19a (NET)

[41] Deuteronomy 32:41 (NET)

[42] Deuteronomy 32:4 (NET)

[43] Matthew 7:1, 2 (NET) Table

[44] Matthew 5:25 (NET)

[45] Joshua 22:30, 31 (NET)

Romans, Part 65

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I’m still considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  I’m focusing now on the aftermath of the death of the Levite’s concubine.  The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “How could such a wicked thing take place?  Now, hand over the good-for-nothings (belı̂yaʽal, בליעל) in Gibeah so we can execute them and purge Israel of wickedness.”[2]

On the surface of it this sounds like a thoughtful and lawful way to proceed.  But I note that the Levite had not called the perpetrators of the crime in Gibeah good-for-nothings (KJV: children of Belial) but baʽal.[3]  Perhaps baʽal in this context communicated children of belı̂yaʽal to the Levite’s contemporaries, but I suspect that it carried a more technical legal weight in this particular accusation (Deuteronomy 13:12-18 NET).

Suppose you should hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you as a place to live, that some evil (belı̂yaʽal, בליעל; KJV: children of Belial) people have departed from among you to entice the inhabitants of their cities, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods” (whom you have not known before).  You must investigate thoroughly and inquire carefully.  If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing is being done among you, you must by all means slaughter the inhabitants of that city with the sword; annihilate with the sword everyone in it, as well as the livestock.  You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin forever – it must never be rebuilt again.  You must not take for yourself anything that has been placed under judgment.  Then the Lord will relent from his intense anger, show you compassion, have mercy on you, and multiply you as he promised your ancestors.  Thus you must obey the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving you today and doing what is right before him.

Not only that, but purge Israel of wickedness was a familiar theme from the law.

Reference NET Hebrew Septuagint
Deuteronomy 13:5 purge out evil from within ובערת הרע מקרבך ἀφανιεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 17:7 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ף ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 17:12 purge evil from Israel ובערת הרע מישׁראל ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ Ισραηλ
Deuteronomy 19:13 purge out the blood of the innocent from Israel ובערת דם הנקי מישׁראל καθαριεῖς τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἀναίτιον ἐξ Ισραηλ
Deuteronomy 19:19 purge[4] evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 21:9 purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you תבער הדם הנקי מקרבך כי ἐξαρεῖς τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἀναίτιον ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 21:21 purge out wickedness from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 22:21 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ס ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 22:22 purge evil from Israel ובערת הרע מישׁראל ס ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ Ισραηλ
Deuteronomy 22:24 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ס ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Deuteronomy 24:7 purge evil from among you ובערת הרע מקרבך ἐξαρεῖς τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν
Judges 20:13 purge Israel of wickedness ונבערה [5]רעה מישׁראל ἐκκαθαριοῦμεν πονηρίαν ἀπὸ Ισραηλ

I went to bed meditating on these details with a line from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill, Volume 1” flitting around in my memory: “When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you’re doing his will.”[6]  I awoke the next morning with the fresh insight that yehôvâh had this law (Deuteronomy 13:12-18) at his disposal throughout the period covered by the book of Judges.

The Israelites did evil (raʽ, הרע) in the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) sight.  They forgot the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) their God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיהם) and worshiped the Baals (baʽal, הבעלים) and the Asherahs.[7]  They had become the children of Belial by definition.  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) was furious with Israel,[8] but he did not invoke this law.  He turned them over to King Cushan-Rishathaim of Aram-Naharaim[9] instead.  They were Cushan-Rishathaim’s subjects for eight years.[10]  And I was reminded of Moses’ intercession with yehôvâh.

When the first forty day covenant ended yehôvâh had Israel dead to rights.  They had despised that covenant,[11] but yehôvâh intended to honor it: Whoever sacrifices to a god other than the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה) alone must be utterly destroyed.[12] 

So now, leave me alone, He said to Moses, so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.[13]

Turn from your burning anger, Moses interceded, and relent (nâcham, והנחם) of this evil (raʽ, הרעה) against your people.[14] 

Then the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) relented (nâcham, וינחם) over the evil (raʽ, הרעה) that he had said he would do to his people,[15] though they had made themselves children of Belial.  The prophet Samuel, the last of the judges, defined children of Belial as those who knew not yehôvâh: Now the sons of Eli [the priest] were sons of Belial (belı̂yaʽal,בליעל ); they knew (yâdaʽ ידעו) not the LORD (yehôvâh).[16]

Do not become partners with those who do not believe, Paul wrote the Corinthians, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?  And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar (Βελιάρ, a form of Βελίαλ)?  Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?  And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols?  For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.[17] 

When the Israelites cried out for help to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), the passage in Judges continued, he (yehôvâh, יהוה) raised up a deliverer for the Israelites who rescued them.  His name was Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother [Table].  The Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) spirit empowered him and he led (shâphaṭ, וישפט) Israel.[18]

I feel more than a little awkward about it, but I’ll quote from a website on Satanism, not to establish some identity for Belial.  The witch I worked for in school told me with a straight face that he worshiped Celtic Baal but did not believe that Celtic Baal existed in any other sense than as a personification of natural forces.  Though he would cringe at being compared to a Satanist (he perceived Satanism as a Christian heresy), I think one would find the same range from true believers to those who only believe in personifications of natural forces among Satanists.  I quote the following merely to hear Belial as what Paul called the flesh, speaking honestly, audaciously and uncensored by law or religion.

Belial is the carnal side of man, the lust, sex, pleasure and therefore the principal drives that make living worthwhile. People derive all the principal emotions of the higher ego from Belial: Pride comes from self control and suppression of the Belial, strength, pleasure and independence come from embracing it. Belial is the Master of the Earth, the force that holds Humankind by its balls, any security or stability are results of lessons learnt from dealing with this Crown Prince.

Belial is the champion of simply being human, for the flesh, the material and the carnal. In essence, a reverence for Belial affirms how “good” the flesh/humanity is. Unrestrained by law or morality; lawless; immoral; dissolute; lewd; lascivious, Unrestrained; uncurbed; uncontrolled; unruly; riotous; ungovernable; wanton; profligate; dissolute; lax; loose; sensual; impure; unchaste; lascivious; immoral, dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure.[19]

We salt this flesh with law and spread religious jelly on it to alter its flavor somewhat, but can’t change its essence.  Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above,’[20] yehôvâh in human flesh as Jesus said.  And Paul wrote to believers in Rome (Romans 6:3-7 NET): 

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.  We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

And again, Paul wrote to believers in Galatia (Galatians 2:20, 21 NET):

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

The essence of Wiccan morality (as well as many American teenagers, among others) is stated, “as long as you aren’t harming anyone, do as you wish.”  But when we do as we wish in our flesh, we children of Belial, we inevitably and without fail do harm to someone.  And that brought me back to the Kill Bill quotation: “When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you’re doing his will.”

These lines, spoken by a character known as the Bride in Volume 1 (aka Black Mamba), was played and partially created by Uma Thurman.  The Bride was a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, a kind of Manson family with style, not political revolutionaries but contract killers.  We’re deep in Belial territory here, and the god to which the Bride referred (and personified for two films) was δίκη—Vengeance.  Here is an exchange between Black Mamba (the Bride) and Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox) from Kill Bill, Volume 1:

Black Mamba: I’m not gonna murder you in front of your [four-year-old] child, okay?

Copperhead: That’s being more rational than Bill led me to believe you were capable of.

Black Mamba: It’s mercy, compassion and forgiveness I lack—not rationality.

Copperhead: Look, I know I fucked you over.  I fucked you over bad.  I wish to God I hadn’t, but I did.  You have every right to want to get even.

Black Mamba (chuckling): No, to get even, even Stephen, I would have to kill you, go up to Nikki’s room, kill her, then wait for your husband to come home and kill him.  That’d be even, Vernita.  That’d be about square.

Copperhead: Look, if I could go back in a machine, I would.  But I can’t.  All I can tell you is that I’m a different person now.

Black Mamba: Oh, great.  I don’t care.

Copperhead: Be that as it may, I know I don’t deserve your mercy or your forgiveness.  However, I beseech you for both on behalf of my daughter.

Black Mamba: Bitch, you can stop right there.  Just because I have no wish to murder you before the eyes of your daughter does not mean parading her around in front of me is gonna inspire sympathy.  You and I have unfinished business.  And not a goddam fucking thing you’ve done in the subsequent four years, including getting knocked up, is gonna change that.

It hit home hard since I had thought that yehôvâh/Jesus was δίκη, and had mistaken his patience and mercy for proof of his nonexistence when I turned to atheism.  The word of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) came to[21] Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:21-29 NET):

“But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.  None of the sins he has committed will be held against him; because of the righteousness he has done, he will live.  Do I actually delight in the death of the wicked, declares the sovereign (ʼădônây, אדני) Lord (yehôvih, יהוה)?  Do I not prefer that he turn from his wicked conduct and live?

“But if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing according to all the abominable practices the wicked carry out, will he live?  All his righteous acts will not be remembered; because of the unfaithful acts he has done and the sin he has committed, he will die.

“Yet you say, ‘The Lord’s (ʼădônây, אדני) conduct is unjust!’  Hear, O house of Israel: Is my conduct unjust?  Is it not your conduct that is unjust?  When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die.  When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.  Because he considered and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die.  Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s (ʼădônây, אדני) conduct is unjust!’  Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel?  Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

This exercise altered my superficial observation that the brotherhood acted thoughtfully and lawfully.  I began to see four hundred thousand armed men, as likely as not to be sons of Belial themselves, rushing in where yehôvâh had not tread.

But the Benjaminites refused to listen to their Israelite brothers.  The Benjaminites came from their cities and assembled at Gibeah to make war against the Israelites.[22]

Why?  Was it because the Benjaminites wholeheartedly supported the children of Belial’s right to know any strange man who wandered into town or to gang-rape young women?  Or was it because their Israelite brothers came at them in battle array, four hundred thousand strong, armed with an implacable law that condemned them already?

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 20:12, 13a (NET)

[3] Judges 20:5 (NET)

[4] NET note 37: “Heb ‘you will burn out’ (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).”

[5] I thought this was a typo since רעה has he ה at the end rather than at the beginning (הרע) like the other occurrences, but the letters are in the same order in the Hebrew OT online at ericlevy.com

[6] “Kill Bill, Volume 1”

[7] Judges 3:7 (NET)

[8] Judges 3:8a (NET)

[9] Judges 3:8b (NET) Also: Judges 3:12; 4:1-2; 6:1; 10:6-7; 13:1 (NET)

[10] Judges 3:8c (NET)

[11] Exodus 32:1-6 (NET)

[12] Exodus 22:20 (NET)

[13] Exodus 32:10 (NET) Table

[14] Exodus 32:12b (NET) Table

[15] Exodus 32:14 (NET)

[16] 1 Samuel 2:12 (KJV)

[17] 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (NET)

[18] Judges 3:9, 10a (NET)

[19] “Belial, the Northern Crown Prince of Satanism”

[20] John 3:7 (NET)

[21] Ezekiel 18:1 (NET)

[22] Judges 20:13b, 14 (NET)

Romans, Part 64

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I am considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.   In a previous essay I wrote, “Dear God, I hope she was dead,” of the Levite’s concubine as she was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house.[2]  That hope is probably not the hope Paul wrote of if Rejoice in hope described love rather than instituted a rule to obey because Love is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.[3]  I assume that chapter 19 of Judges related what happened in Gibeah and chapter 20 related what the Levite “explained” about what happened.  (But I don’t think I would make that assumption with any literature other than the Bible.)

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
Then the Israelites said, “Explain how this wicked thing happened!”  The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up…

Judges 20:3b-4a (NET)
So they traveled on, and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.  They stopped there and decided to spend the night in Gibeah…They were having a good time…

Judges 19:14, 15a,:22a (NET)

 “I and my concubine stopped in Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night.

Judges 20:4b (NET)

So far so good, there is substantial agreement between the two accounts.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
…when suddenly some men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) of the city (ʽı̂yr, העיר), some good-for-nothings[4] (belı̂yaʽal, בליעל); literally, “sons of worthlessness”), surrounded the house and kept beating on the door.

Judges 19:22b (NET)

 “The leaders (baʽal, בעלי) of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying.

Judges 20:5a (NET)

Here, some men of the city, some good-for-nothings became the leaders of Gibeah in the Levite’s retelling of the tale.  If this were two Gospel accounts I would tend to add them together to understand that some men of the city, some good-for-nothings were also the leaders of Gibeah.  I’m not so trusting at the end of Judges.  But there may be no discrepancy at all.

The King James translators chose men in place of leaders.  So did the translators of the Septuagint (ανδρες, a form of ἀνήρ).  Still, I applaud the NET translators for attempting to highlight the difference here.  The account in Judges 19 called them men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) twice (note 50) while the Levite called them baʽal.  I will suggest that the term may be more derogatory or facetious than leaders.

For fire went out from Heshbon, Moses quoted a proverb, a flame from the city of Sihon.  It has consumed Ar of Moab and the lords (baʽal, בעלי) of the high places of Arnon.[5]  The Lord God of Israel[6] spoke through Joshua: The leaders (baʽal, בעלי) of Jericho, as well as the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, fought with you, but I handed them over to you.[7]

When Gideon with his three hundred men, exhausted, but still chasing the Midianites,[8] asked the people of Succoth for bread, The officials (śar, שׁרי) of Succoth said, “You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna.  So why should we give bread to your army?”[9] Gideon’s hungry men defeated Midian without their bread (Judges 8:13-17 NET):

Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the pass of Heres.  He captured a young man from Succoth and interrogated him.  The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials (śar, שׁרי) and city leaders (zâqên, זקניה)– seventy-seven men (ʼı̂ysh, איש) in all.  He approached the men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) of Succoth and said, “Look what I have!  Zebah and Zalmunna!  You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna.  So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’”  He seized the leaders (zâqên, זקני) of the city, along with some desert thorns and briers; he then “threshed” the men (ʼı̂ysh, אנשי) of Succoth with them.  He also tore down the tower of Penuel and executed the city’s men (ʼı̂ysh).

The officials, leaders and men of Succoth insulted Gideon and were punished for it, but not once were they called baʽal.  That epithet was reserved for the leaders (baʽal, בעלי) of Shechem,[10] who conspired with Abimelech to murder Gideon’s legitimate heirs (Judges 8:33-35 NET).

After Gideon died, the Israelites again prostituted (Septuagint: ἐξεπόρνευσαν, a form of ἐκπορνεύω) themselves to the Baals (baʽal, הבעלים).  They made Baal-Berith (baʽal berı̂yth,בעל ברית) their god (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהים).  The Israelites did not remain true to the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) their God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיהם), who had delivered them from all the enemies who lived around them.  They did not treat the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) fairly in return for all the good he had done for Israel.

In other words, these baʽal worshippers were disloyal to God and his leadership.  The temple of Baal-Berith[11] even financed Abimelech’s rise to power.[12]  It makes me suspect that the Levite called the men of Gibeah baʽal (בעלי) to highlight their disloyalty and to indicate its source.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
They said to the old man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with (yâdaʽ, ונדענו) him.”

Judges 19:22c (NET)

 They wanted to kill (hârag, להרג) me…

Judges 20:5a (NET)

There is no usage of hârag (kill) to this point in the Bible that would lead me to believe that it could entail the euphemistic yâdaʽ (have sex with; literally, to know).  I would like to believe that the Levite felt some remorse, regret or at least some embarrassment that would cause him to avoid retelling his part in this story, but I can’t be fully convinced that I understand his motives.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
The man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house went outside and said to them, “No, my brothers!  Don’t do this wicked thing!  After all, this man is a guest in my house.  Don’t do such a disgraceful thing!  Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine.  I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

Judges 19:23, 24 (NET)

In the introduction of the tale the Levite didn’t tell—The man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house—I find the denotation of baʽal.  The owner of an ox is baʽal (Exodus 21:28-32, 36).  If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it he is the owner of the pit; he is baʽal (Exodus 21:33, 34).  As the owner of an ox, so the owner of a donkey or of anything else is also baʽal (Exodus 21:34; 22:11-15).  So, of course, the owner of a house is baʽal (Exodus 22:8; Judges 19:22, 23).

Owned, Owner
Reference

NET

LXX
Exodus 21:28 …the owner (baʽal, ובעל) of the ox will be acquitted. κύριος
Exodus 21:29a …and its owner (baʽal, בבעליו) was warned… κυρίῳ
Exodus 21:29b …and the man (baʽal, בעליו) must be put to death (mûth, יומת). κύριος
Exodus 21:34a …the owner (baʽal, בעל) of the pit must repay the loss. κύριος
Exodus 21:34b He must give money to its owner (baʽal, לבעליו)… κυρίῳ
Exodus 21:36 …and its owner (baʽal, בעליו) did not take the necessary precautions… κυρίῳ
Exodus 22:8 …then the owner (baʽal, בעל) of the house will be brought before the judges (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, האלהים; Septuagint: ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ, “in the sight of God”)… κύριος
Exodus 22:11 …and its owner (baʽal, בעליו) will accept this… κύριος
Exodus 22:12 …he will pay its owner (baʽal, לבעליו). κυρίῳ
Exodus 22:14 …and it is hurt or dies when its owner (baʽal, בעליו) was not with it… κύριος
Exodus 22:15 If its owner (baʽal, בעליו) was with it… κύριος
Judges 19:22 They said to the old man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house… κύριον
Judges 19:23 The man who owned (baʽal, בעל) the house went outside and said to them… κύριος

The owner of a woman was also baʽal.

Husband
Reference

NET

 Septuagint
Genesis 20:3 …for she is someone else’s (baʽal, בעל) wife (bâʽal, בעלת). συνῳκηκυῖα ἀνδρί
Exodus 21:22 …in accordance with what the woman’s husband (baʽal, בעל) demands of him… ἀνὴρ τῆς γυναικός
Leviticus 21:4[13] He must not defile himself as a husband (baʽal, בעל) among his people…

n/a
Deuteronomy 21:13 …you may have sexual relations (bôʼ, תבוא) with her and become her husband (baʽal, ובעלתה)… συνοικισθήσῃ αὐτῇ
Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations (shâkab, שכב) with a married (bâʽal, בעלת) (baʽal, בעל) woman… συνῳκισμένης ἀνδρί
Deuteronomy 24:4 …her first husband (baʽal, בעלה) who divorced her is not permitted to remarry her… ἀνὴρ

By this reckoning the Levite was baʽal.  But surely yehôvâh, the creator and owner of everything, was also baʽal.  Suddenly it becomes easier to understand why ancient Israelites succumbed over and over again to baʽal worship, especially if the baʽal worshippers down the street practiced “sacred sex,” celebrating in worship things yehôvâh forbade.

Plead earnestly with your mother, yehôvâh spoke of Israel through the prophet Hosea years later, (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband [ʼı̂ysh, אישה]), so that she might put an end to her adulterous (Septuagint: πορνείαν, a form of πορνεία) lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral (Septuagint: μοιχείαν, a form of μοιχεία) behavior.[14]  However, in the future I will allure her, He promised.  I will lead her back into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.[15]

“At that time,” declares the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), “you will call, ‘My husband (ʼı̂ysh, אישי)’; you will never again call me, ‘My master (baʽălı̂y, בעלי).’  For I will remove the names of the Baal (baʽal, הבעלים) idols from your lips, so that you will never again utter their names!”[16]

 

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite grabbed (châzaq, ויחזק) his concubine and made her go outside.  They raped (yâdaʽ, וידעו) her and abused her all night long until morning.  They let her go at dawn.  The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master (ʼâdôn, אדוניה) was staying until it became light.

Judges 19:25, 26 (NET)

 …instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died (mûth, ותמת).

Judges 20:5b (NET)

Again the Levite’s version of the story is dramatically different from the account in Judges 19.  He didn’t mention his own involvement in his concubine’s rape or that she survived her ordeal.  Perhaps he didn’t know the latter, if she died during the night.  Though mûth, the Hebrew word translated died, can mean to kill or execute, the form here seems to be used of women who died of what we—with no access to the tree of life— consider “natural causes,”[17] or dead[18] animals.  As I wrote in a previous essay, I hope she died during the night but I’m not convinced that hope is in line with the truth.  Frankly, this particular Levite has given me no reason to trust his account.

The Hebrew word translated grabbed was translated persuaded in: His father-in-law, the girl’s father, persuaded (châzaq, ויחזק) [the Levite] to stay with him for three days, and they ate and drank together, and spent the night there.[19]  Instead of grabbing her with his hands and thrusting her out of the door, the Levite may have persuaded his concubine to sacrifice herself.  I don’t know if he grabbed her or persuaded her.  If he persuaded her I don’t know how he persuaded her, but I want to consider the faith of Jephthah’s daughter and σκάνδαλα (a form of σκάνδαλον; stumbling blocks).

As I wrote before I never want to disparage her faith in any way, but how I use the description of her faith as Scripture could become a stumbling block to others.  If I use her faith as a searchlight to examine my own work,[20] expose my faithlessness and repent, Then [I] can take pride in [myself; that is, my own progress] and not compare [myself] with someone else.[21]  But if I used her faith as an example for young women to follow, to guilt them into acting against their own self-interests, I would have become[22] one of the judges with evil motives.[23]  And I would have turned the compelling childlike faith of Jephthah’s daughter into a stumbling block for other young women.

Judges 19 (NET)

Judges 20 (NET)
When he got home, he took a knife, grabbed (châzaq, ויחזק) his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces.  Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel.

Judges 19:29 (NET)

 I grabbed hold (ʼâchaz, ואחז) of my concubine and carved her up and sent the pieces throughout the territory occupied by Israel, because they committed such an unthinkable atrocity in Israel.   All you Israelites, make a decision here!”

Judges 20:6, 7 (NET)

I sincerely doubt that the Levite persuaded his concubine to be carved up into twelve pieces—dead or alive.

The first occurrence of châzaq, the Hebrew word translated grabbed, in this form (ויחזק) in the Old Testament described the grip a famine had on Egypt: The famine was severe (châzaq, ויחזק) throughout the land of Egypt.[24]  The most common usage by far described the grip yehôvâh had on Pharaoh’s heart: But the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) hardened (châzaq, ויחזק) Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) had predicted to Moses.[25]  It was used to describe the grip He had on the hearts of all the peoples dwelling in the land of Canaan during Joshua’s conquest: For it was of the LORD (yehôvâh, יהוה) to harden (châzaq, ויחזק) their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle…[26]  It was translated control in: The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) gave King Eglon of Moab control (châzaq, ויחזק) over Israel because they had done evil in the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) sight.[27]

The Levite also described his grip but with the functionally equivalent word ʼâchaz (ואחז): But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and grab (ʼâchaz, ואחז) [the snake] by the tail” – so he put out his hand and caught it (châzaq, ויחזק), and it became a staff in his hand…[28]  In a different form ʼâchaz described yehôvâh’s grip on judgment: I will sharpen my lightning-like sword, and my hand will grasp hold (ʼâchaz, ותאחז) of the weapon of judgment; I will execute vengeance on my foes, and repay those who hate me![29]  But ʼâchaz also described the capture of someone fleeing: When Adoni-Bezek ran away, they chased him and captured (ʼâchaz, ויאחזו) him.[30]

So perhaps both accounts agree in mentioning the firmness of the Levite’s grip as he carved up his concubine.  Or perhaps both accounts agree describing the effort he expended before he could carve up his resistant and unwilling concubine.  Frankly, I can’t tell.  But the brotherhood of four hundred thousand sword-wielding foot soldiers[31] responded as one man[32] to the Levite’s explanation (Judges 20:8-10 NET):

Not one of us will go home!  Not one of us will return to his house!  Now this is what we will do to Gibeah: We will attack the city as the lot dictates.  We will take ten of every group of a hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (and a hundred of every group of a thousand, and a thousand of every group of ten thousand) to get supplies for the army.  When they arrive in Gibeah of Benjamin they will punish them for the atrocity which they committed in Israel.

Romans, Part 65

Back to Romans, Part 67

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 19:26 (NET)

[3] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NET)

[4] KJV: Belial.  See: “Belial, the Northern Crown Prince of Satanism”

[5] Numbers 21:28 (NET)

[6] Joshua 24:2 (NET)

[7] Joshua 24:11b (NET)

[8] Judges 8:4 (NET)

[9] Judges 8:6 (NET)

[10] Judges 9:2, 3, 6, 7, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 39, 46, 47

[11] http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Baal-berith.html#.VjwAqIKFNAg; https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_01776.html, http://www.angelfire.com/empire/serpentis666/Baal-Berith.html

[12] Judges 9:4 (NET)

[13] This is a special case.  The KJV translated baʽal (בעל) being a chief man, forcing God to call his own priests baʽal.  Though that is some powerful prophetic irony, I think the NIV translators grasped the sense of it better: He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.  The priest may make himself unclean or defile himself for a dead close relative who is near to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, and his virgin sister… (Leviticus 21:2, 3 NET)

[14] Hosea 2:2 (NET)

[15] Hosea 2:14 (NET)

[16] Hosea 2:16, 17 (NET) Table1 Table2

[17] Genesis 23:2; 35:8, 19, 38:12; Numbers 20:1 (NET)

[18] Exodus 21:34, 36 (NET)

[19] Judges 19:4 (NET)

[20] Galatians 6:4, 5 (NET)

[21] Galatians 6:4 (NET)

[22] If the Levite persuaded his concubine this way, for instance, he made a distinction (διεκρίθητε, a form of διακρίνω) between himself—a holy Levite and a man—and his concubine—a sex slave and a woman.

[23] James 2:4 (NET)

[24] Genesis 41:56b (NET)

[25] Exodus 9:12 (NET) Also: Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:35; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:8 (NET)

[26] Joshua 11:20a (KJV)

[27] Judges 3:12b (NET)

[28] Exodus 4:4 (NET)

[29] Deuteronomy 32:41 (NET)

[30] Judges 1:6a (NET)

[31] Judges 20:2 (NET)

[32] Judges 20:8 (NET) note 16

Romans, Part 63

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I am considering Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer,[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  The story of the Levite and his concubine in the book of Judges qualifies as ἀδικίᾳ that love is not glad about.  In the previous essay I wrote, “Dear God, I hope she was dead,” of the Levite’s concubine as she was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house.[2]  The problem with that hope is that the text doesn’t specify exactly when she died.

If my Mom found dog pee on the carpet she would rub the dog’s nose in it.  If that poor woman didn’t die from her injuries during the night I feel like my nose is being rubbed in the stench of the religious mind.

I’m trying to be mindful of our differing socializations, the Levite’s and mine.  John Wayne and Clint Eastwood would never send a woman out to face a pack of rapists.  “Women and children first” is second nature to me.  The Levite never heard Jesus’ teaching, What defiles a person is not what goes into the mouth; it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.[3]  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he could not know that sending his woman out to a pack of rapists defiled him infinitely more than any pack of rapists could ever hope to do to him (Matthew 15:18-20a NET).

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.  For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality (πορνεῖαι, a form of πορνεία), theft, false testimony, slander.  These are the things that defile a person…

“Get up, let’s leave!”[4] the Levite said the next morning to the woman sprawled out on the doorstep of the house.

Perhaps his apparent coldness to the one who saved his ass—literally—is just my misunderstanding of an ancient Hebrew idiom.  I thought Jesus was terribly rude to his mother when He said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.[5]  Jesus, his mother Mary and his disciples attended a wedding in Cana.  All Mary had said to Him was, “They have no wine left.”[6]  My mother argues that I’m wrong to hear rudeness in Jesus’ response, rather that I should hear the crosscurrents of the obligation an eldest son felt toward his widowed or abandoned mother, and a godly mother’s sense of obligation to push him out the door to accomplish whatever God had sent Him to accomplish instead.

“Whatever he tells you, do it,”[7] Mary told the servants.  Jesus did this [turned water into wine] as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee.  In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him,[8] and his quiet life, and hers, changed dramatically overnight.

If the Levite put the woman’s unresponsive but still breathing body on the donkey and went home,[9] his negligence alone made him culpable for her death.  Even a Samaritan, a pseudo-Jew, had more compassion on a total stranger who fell among robbers (Luke 10:34, 35 NET):

He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.  Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way.’

This became the meaning of the law, love your neighbor as yourself,[10] when Jesus asked an expert in religious law, “Which of these three [the priest or the Levite who passed by on the others side,[11] or the Samaritan] do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”  The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.”  So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”[12]

If the woman was still alive when the Levite took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces,[13] the reeking stench of the religious mind boggles the imagination, for she had become too tainted in his sight to serve any longer as his sex slave.  If this is the understanding I am meant to perceive from the text’s reticence to state with any precision when the woman died, I will suggest that law is required to create a religious monster of this magnitude.

Before the law Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant.”[14]  The charge was true.  Tamar had removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil.  She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah.[15]  She did this so that men, one man in particular in fact, would think she was a prostitute.[16]

Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”[17]

While they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong.”  Then she said, “Identify the one to whom the seal, cord, and staff belong.”[18]

They were Judah’s, given in pledge to what he thought was a cult prostitute seated by the side of the road.  Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.”  He did not have sexual relations with her again.[19]

It’s a complicated tale involving Tamar’s social security, Judah’s superstition and Onanism (like Ananias and Sapphira-ism, e.g., lying to the Holy Spirit).  But before the law it was that easy for Judah to confess his own guilt and acquit Tamar.  After the law this Levite earned his place in a fiery hell.  And my own deliberations were so alarmingly like his.

I didn’t exactly grab my daughter and throw her out of the house to a pack of ravenous men.  I didn’t exactly fill her with the confidence that she could be loved by one man for an entire lifetime either.  I had my own σκάνδαλα (a form of σκάνδαλον; stumbling blocks) as he had his.  The Levite had Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men[20] as his example.

Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man, Lot had said to a pack of ravenous men of Sodom.  Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please.  Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.[21]  The Levite’s host did essentially the same thing to save him: Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine, he said.  I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man![22]

God spared Lot and his virgin daughters: So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.  Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness.[23]  In his own story the Levite played the role of the visitor.  He knew his host and his host’s daughter should be spared.  He knew he could not strike men blind.  So he did the only thing in his power to do: the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside.[24]

My own deliberations during my second divorce, predicated largely on my own experiences during my first divorce, shared the Levite’s  myopia.  Not once did I consider, much less wait for, God’s miraculous intervention.  I deliberated and acted with only my own abilities in view, never considering the possibility of God’s graciousness, believing instead that I probably deserved to be punished with another divorce, and so, living up to that expectation of my religious mind.

I have written a lot about the Levite and virtually nothing about the men who threatened him and raped his concubine.  I relate to the Levite’s religious mind.  It is more difficult to relate to the men who surrounded the house where he and his concubine stayed.  To illustrate I’m reminded of a story told by artist Miru Kim in Esquire Magazine.

She takes beautiful, evocative photographs of deserted urban landscapes and ruins with either herself or her sister as the lone figure in the shot—nude.  She was photographing herself, alone in an abandoned train tunnel, when the vagrant who lived there returned.  A marginal man, underground, in the dark, far from any systems of social control, it was the perfect setting for a violent tragedy.  Miru Kim continues in her own words:

“I was so scared.  That was probably the scariest moment.  I saw a figure coming through the tunnel, and he didn’t have a flashlight or anything, so it was completely dark.  So I see this dark figure coming toward me, then I saw that it was just this old guy who looked pretty harmless, he just lived there.  So I dressed up and explained to him what I was doing — ‘I’m doing an art project, sorry to bother you’ — you know?  Because it’s like his house, you know?  So I told him, and he didn’t say much; he was just standing there like, Okay.  So I took off my clothes again and did it in front of him and he was kind of sitting in the picture, so I was like, ‘Do you mind moving forward out of the picture, please?’  And he was just sitting around watching, so I did my thing, then dressed up.  It was really filthy in there, real muddy, smelled like urine, and I was wiping off with baby wipes, and the guy was like, ‘Do you want my shirt to clean off?’  He looked probably sixty or so, I’m sure he’s younger than he looks, and really skinny.  He was really nice.  Afterward, we were sitting around talking about his life.  He kept on talking about Rikers Island, and that he likes it down there because it’s quiet.  I told him I liked that, too.  And then he was like, ‘Let me walk you out.’  He thanked me for treating him like a regular person.”

I understand this art lover.  I relate to this lover of women.  He is my brother.  The mob that surrounded the house in Gibeah seems like cartoon evil to me.  This is how old men portray the enemy to young men when they want them to fight their wars for them.

I recognize the humanity of the men in Sodom primarily by their religious minds.  Lot offended their moral sensibilities: “Out of our way!” they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us!  We’ll do more harm to you than to them!”[25]  The men of Benjamin were given no such cover.  They were like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.[26]

I played a week-long gig in an army town about forty years ago.  When we finished the first night we had to excuse ourselves between two lines of soldiers wound all the way around our hotel.  They awaited their turn for two women side by side on their backs in another hotel room.  I had been in locker rooms in high school.  I can at least extrapolate from that experience what kind of macho-anti-masturbatory-group-think might possess a young man to pay for the privilege to be third, fifth (?), eleventh (?), thirty-second (?), fifty-third (?) in one of those lines.  I can’t find any experience to extrapolate from to get anywhere near the vigilantes (?) enforcing social norms (?) in Sodom or the welcoming committee (?) in Gibeah.

“Warm Bodies” is an interesting movie.  It might have been a great film if it weren’t narrated from the wrong point of view with unnecessary voiceovers.  A zombie eats a man’s brains.  This allows him to see the man’s thoughts and feel his feelings.  He falls in love with the man’s girlfriend.  It’s not a sexual or romantic love, though there is a humorous bit where he attempts to comb his hair before assuring her in labored speech and pantomime that he will not eat her.  “Keep you safe,” is his constant refrain.  And he lives up to his word, not eating her himself and defending her from other zombies who would.

Eventually the mob in Gibeah came face-to-face with a woman.  Like the vagrant in the abandoned train tunnel or the zombie in “Warm Bodies” they had an opportunity to see themselves in her frightened eyes and repent, but they gang-raped her instead.  To say that they deserved to die implies moral reasoning and social systems of adjudication.  The instinct to exterminate these men is more basic than that.  It is the instinct, perhaps, which binds us together as a brotherhood of men.  And the Levite’s macabre missive mustered four hundred thousand of the brotherhood.

A town in which most people are filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit can afford one fat, lazy sheriff.  The image and meaning of the good in that town will be some aspect(s) of the citizens’ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control.  A town in which most people are not filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit must fund at least three shifts of virile nazis.  The image and meaning of the good in that town will be those virile nazis.  As Robin (Anne Heche) in “Six Days Seven Nights” replied to Quinn (Harrison Ford), who thought women preferred a man who was in touch with his feminine side: “Well, not when they’re being chased by pirates.  They like them mean and armed!”

Romans, Part 64

Back to Romans, Part 65

Back to Romans, Part 66

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Judges 19:26 (NET)

[3] Matthew 15:11 (NET)

[4] Judges 19:28 (NET)

[5] John 2:4 (KJV)

[6] John 2:3 (NET)

[7] John 2:5 (NET)

[8] John 2:11 (NET)

[9] Judges 19:28 (NET)

[10] Leviticus 19:18 (NET) Table

[11] Luke 10:31, 32 (NET)

[12] Luke 10:36, 37 (NET)

[13] Judges 19:29 (NET)

[14] Genesis 38:24a (NET)

[15] Genesis 38:14 (NET)

[16] Genesis 38:15a (NET)

[17] Genesis 38:24b (NET)

[18] Genesis 38:25 (NET)

[19] Genesis 38:26 (NET)

[20] 2 Peter 2:7 (NET)

[21] Genesis 19:8 (NET)

[22] Judges 19:24 (NET)

[23] Genesis 19:10, 11a (NET)

[24] Judges 19:25b (NET)

[25] Genesis 19:9a (NET)

[26] 2 Peter 2:12a (NET)

Romans, Part 62

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As I continue to consider Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer,[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey, I want to look at some more truth that love rejoices in along with some more ἀδικία that it does not.  What Luke called a parable (παραβολὴν, a form of παραβολή) Matthew presented as a rhetorical question in a discourse about child-rearing: If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray?[2]

Matthew

Luke
See that you do not disdain one of these little ones.  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Matthew 18:10 (NET)

 So Jesus told them this parable:

Luke 15:3 (NET)
What do you think?  If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray?  And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice (χαίρει, a form of χαίρω) more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Matthew 18:12, 13 (NET)

 “Which one of you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that is lost until he finds it?  Then when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing (χαίρων, another form of χαίρω).  Returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’

Luke 15:4-6 (NET)
In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost.

Matthew 18:14 (NET)

 I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy (χαρὰ) in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.

Luke 15:7 (NET)

I should back up a bit and look at more of the context of Matthew’s Gospel narrative.  Jesus’ disciples had asked him, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?[3]

He called a child, had him stand among them, and said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn around and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!  Whoever then humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me.”[4]

Then He began what I am calling a discourse about child-rearing: But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea.[5]  The Greek word translated causes…to sin is σκανδαλίσῃ (a form of σκανδαλίζω).  The definition in the NET reads as follows:

1) to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall, metaph. to offend 1a) to entice to sin 1b) to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey 1b1) to cause to fall away 1b2) to be offended in one, i.e. to see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority 1b3) to cause one to judge unfavourably or unjustly of another 1c) since one who stumbles or whose foot gets entangled feels annoyed 1c1) to cause one displeasure at a thing 1c2) to make indignant 1c3) to be displeased, indignant

It comes from σκάνδαλον a snare or trap, translated stumbling blocks in the next verse: Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks (σκανδάλων, a form of σκάνδαλον)!  It is necessary that stumbling blocks (σκάνδαλα, another form of σκάνδαλον) come, but woe to the person through whom they (σκάνδαλον) come.”[6]  The necessity (ἀνάγκη, a form of ἀναγκή) of stumbling blocks is part of the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,[7] how God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[8]  As I write this my daughter is essentially a witch, a neo-pagan.  My part in her defection from Christ was a decision made during my divorce from her mother.

My children wanted to stay with me rather than their mother.  I went along with it, hoping their mother would see reason.  She called my bluff and asked for money (to which she was entitled) to leave.  My biggest concern at that moment was the family’s financial survival.  I traveled for a living and would need to hire someone to care for them while I was away.  I had no legal rights to my children.  (I married into them and hadn’t adopted them because their biological father was still living.)  And there were a few more things.

Her care for those children had saved their mother from many (though not all) misguided mistakes.  To take that from her seemed dangerous and cruel.  Add to that, I was crushed in my own soul to be rejected again by yet another woman.  I had serious doubts that I could be a single parent of two teenage children.  Did I even want to be a single parent of two teenage children?  I wanted to make movies.

I decided that I could walk away with nothing but a paycheck, start over again and still help the family financially, and my wife could not.  And so I rejected and abandoned my daughter.

I’m grateful to Stephenie Meyer, Melissa Rosenberg, Catherine Hardwicke and Kristen Stewart for giving me two hours to be a teenage girl in love.  Randy Brown, Robert Lorenz, Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams have also helped me immensely in a more didactic way.  But both “Twilight” and “Trouble with the Curve” came too late to save me from making potentially the worst decision of a lifetime of bad decisions (Matthew 18:8, 9 NET).

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell.

If what I do with my hands, if where I go with my feet, if what I see with my eyes causes me to sin?

Causes you to sin has proven to be the worst of all possible translations of σκανδαλίζει (another form of σκανδαλίζω) for me.  It turns my thoughts inward to my sins.  My sins are forgiven!  Young’s Literal Translation—cause thee to stumble—allows me to see that Jesus was still talking about my real bumbling and stumbling, causing my daughter—one of those little ones who believed in Him—to sin, becoming a stumbling block to her, causing her to desert one whom she ought to trust.

Having watched her struggle through two drug-related psychotic breaks and a stroke, I agree with Jesus that it would have been better for me to kill myself.[9]  It is better for her, however, that I believe that I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God…[10]  And I continue to pray that his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his firm control[11] are all she sees from me from now on, because if I cannot be forgiven…

And by forgiven I mean:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.[12]  An eternity in a fiery hell seems like overkill to me for masturbation or premarital sex or even stealing a gazillion dollars.  But if my daughter cannot be found again by the Lord Jesus, if I have condemned her to an eternity in hell, I’m not entirely convinced one eternity in one fiery hell will be sufficient for me.

And though I write like this I still have hope.  “I’ll always be here as your daughter,” she texted me as I thought and wrote about these things.  She has forgiven me, but not Jesus—not yet.  “Your sacrifice has made my education possible and I can never repay you but with love,” she texted.  Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (ρήματος, a form of ῥῆμα) of God,[13] I pray that He will speak that word, “hear,” to her heart, so she will know Jesus and his Father who has given her so much more than a few dollars.  Now this is eternal life, Jesus prayed to his Father, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.[14]

I didn’t intend this essay to be so confessional.  I intended to write about an incident in the history of Israel, when a Levite…acquired a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.[15]  Actually, I wanted to write about what happened on their journey home, after she got angry at him and went home to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah,[16] after he retrieved her from there.  But in the KJV she didn’t get angry, she played the whore against him.  The note in the NET reads: “Or ‘was unfaithful to him.’ Many have understood the Hebrew verb וַתִּזְנֶה (vattizneh) as being from זָנָה (zanah, “to be a prostitute”), but it may be derived from a root meaning “to be angry; to hate” attested in Akkadian (see HALOT 275 s.v. II זנה).”

Ken Stone wrote in the Jewish Women’s Archive online:

The Hebrew text states that the woman “prostituted herself against” the Levite (19:2). Thus, it has often been assumed that she was sexually unfaithful to him. Certain Greek translations, however, state that she “became angry” with him. The latter interpretation is accepted by a number of commentators and modern English translations, including the NRSV, since the woman goes to her father’s house rather than the house of a male lover. It is also possible that the woman’s “prostitution” does not refer to literal sexual infidelity but is a sort of metaphor for the fact that she leaves her husband. The act of leaving one’s husband is quite unusual in the Hebrew Bible, and the harsh language used to describe it could result from the fact that it was viewed in a very negative light.

And though Mr. Stone mentioned “Certain Greek translations,” the Septuagint reads simply καὶ ἐπορεύθη ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἡ παλλακὴ αὐτοῦ (literally: “and went from him the concubine of his”).

I won’t comment about a Levite with a concubine, except to say that the Hebrew word pı̂ylegesh (פילגש), translated concubine, does not occur in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy.  It occurs in Genesis before God’s law was given and again after in Judges, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Esther, Song of Solomon and Ezekiel.  But the concubine is a foreign custom to God’s law.

The Levite and his concubine spent the night in Gibeah, in the land of the Benjamites, with an old man from the Ephraimite hill country, the place to which the Levite and his concubine were returning.  I made the following table to compare and contrast what happened next to the incident in Sodom the night before it was destroyed.

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
They were having a good time, when suddenly some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and kept beating on the door.

Judges 19:22a (NET)

 Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house.

Genesis 19:4 (NET)

The note on good-for-nothings in the NET reads: “‘the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.’ The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.”  The text is clearer regarding Sodom: Now the people of Sodom were extremely wicked rebels against the Lord (yehôvâh).[17]

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.”

Judges 19:22b (NET)

 They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”

Genesis 19:5 (NET)
The man who owned the house went outside and said to them, “No, my brothers!  Don’t do this wicked thing!  After all, this man is a guest in my house.  Don’t do such a disgraceful thing!

Judges 19:23 (NET)

 Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him.  He said, “No, my brothers!  Don’t act so wickedly!

Genesis 19:6, 7 (NET)
Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine.  I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

Judges 19:24 (NET)

 Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man.  Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please.  Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

Genesis 19:8 (NET)

Chivalry as a moral code was invented much later.

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
The men refused to listen to him…

Judges 19:25a (NET)

 

 “Out of our way!” they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge (Septuagint: κρίσιν κρίνειν) us!  We’ll do more harm to you than to them!”  They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door.

Genesis 19:9 (NET)
…so the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside.

Judges 19:25b (NET)

 So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.  Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness.

Genesis 19:10, 11a (NET)
They raped her and abused her all night long until morning.  They let her go at dawn.

Judges 19:25c (NET)

 The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door.

Genesis 19:11b (NET)

The Benjamites who did this were not “godless Sodomites,” extremely wicked rebels against the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה), but sons of Israel living in the promised land.

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master was staying until it became light.  When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.

Judges 19:26, 27 (NET)

 Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here?  Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city?  Get them out of this place because we are about to destroy it.  The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) that he (yehôvâh, יהוה) has sent us to destroy it.”

Genesis 19:12, 13 (NET)

The woman was dead.  Dear God, I hope she was dead (Judges 19:29, 30 NET):

When he got home, [the Levite] took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces.  Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel.  Everyone who saw the sight said, “Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since the Israelites left the land of Egypt!  Take careful note of it!  Discuss it and speak!”

Romans, Part 63

Back to Romans, Part 64

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Matthew 18:12 (NET)

[3] Matthew 18:1b (NET)

[4] Matthew 18:2-5 (NET)

[5] Matthew 18:6 (NET)

[6] Matthew 18:7 (NET)

[7] Romans 11:33a (NET)

[8] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[9] Matthew 18:6b (NET)

[10] Galatians 2:20a (NET)

[11] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[12] Isaiah 1:18b (NKJV) Table

[13] Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

[14] John 17:3 (NET)

[15] Judges 19:1b (NET)

[16] Judges 19:2a (NET)

[17] Genesis 13:13 (NET)

Romans, Part 61

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I’m continuing to look at Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer,[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  I’m still focusing on the injustice (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία) love is not glad (or, does not rejoice)[2] about.  Two different things are revealed (ἀποκαλύπτεται, a form of ἀποκαλύπτω) in the first chapter of Romans.

Two Revelations
For the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God is revealed in the gospel…

Romans 1:17a (NET)

 For the wrath (ὀργὴ, a form of ὀργή) of God is revealed from heaven…

Romans 1:18a (NET)
…from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous (δίκαιος) by faith will live.”

Romans 1:17b (NET)

 …against all ungodliness and unrighteousness (ἀδικίαν, a form of ἀδικία) of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία)…

Romans 1:18b (NET)

But I didn’t always think of these as two different things.  As I became an atheist, though I doubt that I actually thought through these particular verses, I believed that God’s righteousness was God’s wrath, at least it was the nexus where his righteousness impacted human beings.

I returned from atheism to a semblance of faith believing that the wrath (e.g., God’s righteousness) I had not experienced had been deferred to a later time, the end, the Revelation (Ἀποκάλυψις, a form of ἀποκάλυψις).  With this idea in mind I thought the wrath of God…revealed from heaven was some unspecified vengeance against every kind of unrighteousness (ἀδικίᾳ), wickedness, covetousness, malice.  They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility.  They are gossips [Table], slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless [Table].[3]

No matter what the Scripture said I wouldn’t or couldn’t hear that God’s wrath revealed from heaven was that God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.[4]  It was beyond my powers of comprehension that He did this so that they are filled with every kind of unrighteousness (ἀδικίᾳ), wickedness, covetousness, malice.  They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility.  They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless.

As long as I refused to believe that it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy,[5] I couldn’t fathom the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God;[6] namely, that God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[7]  I couldn’t reason that if in his wrath He hands people over to every kind of ἀδικίᾳ, in his non-wrathful state he keeps us from that same ἀδικίᾳ.  And I didn’t perceive that the true nexus of the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel is his love in us,[8] the love that is the fulfillment of the law,[9] the fruit of his Spirit.[10]

Half a millennium or so before Paul penned his letter to the Romans ἀδικίᾳ was a Greek goddess.  “There is also a chest made of cedar, Pausanias wrote, “with figures on it, some of ivory, some of gold, others carved out of the cedar-wood itself.  It was in this chest that Cypselus, the tyrant of Corinth, was hidden by his mother when the Bacchidae were anxious to discover him after his birth.  In gratitude for the saving of Cypselus, his descendants, Cypselids as they are called, dedicated the chest at Olympia.”[11]  Carved on the chest are the figures of a “beautiful woman…punishing an ugly one, choking her with one hand and with the other striking her with a staff.  It is Justice [δίκη] who thus treats Injustice [ἀδικίᾳ].”[12]

I’ll explore some sayings about δίκη (Dike) as a revelation of the religious mind, making no attempt to distinguish the creative reasoning of human beings from lying spirits.[13]  “Next he [Zeus] led away bright Themis (Divine Law),” Hesiod wrote, “who bare the Horai (Horae, Seasons), and Eunomia (Good Order), Dike (Justice), and blooming Eirene (Peace), who mind the works of mortal men.”[14]  “[S]he sits beside her father, Zeus the son of Kronos (Cronus), and tells him of men’s wicked heart, until the people pay for the mad folly of their princes who, evilly minded, pervert judgement and give sentence crookedly.”[15]

The latter saying sounds more like Satan the accuser than justice (Revelation 12:7-10 NET):

Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels.  So that huge dragon – the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan (Σατανᾶς), who deceives the whole world – was thrown down to the earth,[16] and his angels along with him.  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of his Christ, have now come, because the accuser (κατήγωρ, a form of κατηγορέω) of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses (κατηγορῶν, another form of κατηγορέω) them day and night before our God, has been thrown down.”

Perhaps δίκη gives a glimpse into how Satan perceives himself.  It certainly gives me a different impression of Plato’s eulogy:  “With [Zeus],” Plato wrote in Laws, “followeth Dike (Justice), as avenger of them that fall short of the divine law; and she, again, is followed by every man who would fain be happy, cleaving to her with lowly and orderly behavior…”[17]  It sounds like a revelation of Satan’s own longing and ambition.  “To thee revenge the punishment belong, chastising every deed unjust and wrong” says the Orphic Hymn 62 to Dike.[18]  This is essentially the meaning of δίκη in the New Testament (Acts 28:3, 4 NET).

When Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.  When the local people saw the creature hanging from Paul’s hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer!  Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice (δίκη; KJV: vengeance) herself has not allowed him to live!”

Even when the goddess is forgotten the noun δίκη retains her meaning and purpose (2 Thessalonians 1:8-10a; Jude 1:6, 7 NET).

With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will undergo the penalty (δίκην, a form of δίκη; KJV: punished) of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed…

You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day.  So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, since they indulged in sexual immorality (ἐκπορνεύσασαι, a form of ἐκπορνεύω) and pursued unnatural desire in a way similar to these angels, are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment (δίκην, a form of δίκη; KJV: vengeance) of eternal fire.

Philostratus tired of δίκη or the inability of vengeance to produce righteousness in, or secure justice among, human beings: “I am sure that Dike (Justice) will appear in a very ridiculous light; for having been appointed by Zeus and by the Moirai (Fates) to prevent men being unjust to one another, she has never been able to defend herself against injustice.”  In the New Testament δίκη has nothing to do with overcoming ἀδικία in human beings.  Rather, God’s mercy and his love in us through faith in Jesus’ faithfulness crucifies our ἀδικίαν (a form of ἀδικία) and resurrects our new lives into his righteousness through the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 7:5, 6 NET).

For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.  But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

For this reason we also, Paul wrote the Colossians, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.  He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves…[19]

The word translated righteousness in—the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel—is δικαιοσύνη (Dikaiosyne), not a goddess but a daimona (δαίμων[20]).  “In the ancient Greek religion, daimon designates not a specific class of divine beings, but a peculiar mode of activity: it is an occult power that drives humans forward or acts against them: since daimon is the veiled countenance of divine activity, every deity can act as daimon…”[21]  The Orphic Hymn 63 says, “O blessed Dikaiosyne, mankind’s delight, the eternal friend of conduct just and right: abundant, venerable, honoured maid, to judgements pure dispensing constant aid, and conscience stable, and an upright mind…”[22]

To the religious mind Dikaiosyne merely dispenses “aid.”  Of course in the New Testament the daimon does not merely “aid” but possesses and takes control, not for anything resembling righteousness: two demon-possessed (δαιμονιζόμενοι, a form of δαιμονίζομαι) men coming from the tombs met [Jesus].  They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way.[23]  As Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man from the town met him who was possessed[24] by demons (δαιμόνια, a form of δαιμόνιον).  For a long time this man had worn no clothes and had not lived in a house, but among the tombs.[25]

Ancient Greeks were not unaware of these phenomena, they attributed them to κακοδαίμων: “The Hellenistic Greeks divided daemons into good and evil categories: agathodaimōn (ἀγαθοδαίμων “noble spirit”), from agathós (ἀγαθός “good, brave, noble, moral, lucky, useful”), and kakódaimōn (κακοδαίμων “malevolent spirit”), from kakós (κακός “bad, evil”).”[26]  I assume this determination was made according to how well the daemons’ activities corresponded to the determiner’s own desires: the κακοδαίμων thwarted as the ἀγαθοδαίμων aided those desires.  The derivation of δαίμων is “From δαίω daiō (to distribute fortunes)” according to Strong’s Concordance.

To the religious mind Dikaiosyne dispenses “aid” to those who make pure judgments.  I’m reminded of Peter’s surprise that Cornelius summoned him because an angel appeared and told him to do so: I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people, but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is welcomed before him.[27]  That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,[28] –I have not come to call the righteous (δικαίους, a form of δίκαιος), but sinners to repentance,[29] –is a difficult truth for the religious mind to accept.

It is the truth suppressed by unrighteousness (ἀδικίᾳ).  The religious mind jealously guards its own righteousness as its own peculiar possession.  In my opinion Paul experienced a theological crisis[30] over this trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, and we read the Holy Spirit’s solution to that crisis when we read his letter to the Romans (Romans 3:5-9 NKJV).

But if our unrighteousness (ἀδικία) demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust (ἄδικος) who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)  Certainly not!  For then how will God judge the world?  For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?  And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.  What then?  Are we better than they?  Not at all.  For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.

All unrighteousness (ἀδικίᾳ) is sin…[31]  God will reward each one according to his works…wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition and do not obey the truth but follow unrighteousness (ἀδικίᾳ).[32]  The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, and with every kind of evil (ἀδικίας, another form of ἀδικία) deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved.  Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.  And so all of them who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evil (ἀδικίᾳ) will be condemned.[33]  

What shall we say then?  Is there injustice (ἀδικία) with God?  Absolutely not!  For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[34]

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.  Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[35]

This gives me a fairly extensive idea of the truth love rejoices about and the ἀδικία it does not.  Love is not glad about injustice (ἀδικίᾳ), but rejoices in the truth.[36]  Do not extinguish the Spirit,[37] Paul wrote the Thessalonians.  I will suggest that the quickest way to extinguish the Spirit is to take credit for his fruit or to believe that his fruit is anything but the gift of righteousness.[38]  [W]hen the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior.[39]

I’ll continue in the next essay.

Romans, Part 62

Back to Romans, Part 65

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NASB)

[3] Romans 1:29-31 (NET)

[4] Romans 1:28b (NET)

[5] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[6] Romans 11:33a (NET)

[7] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[8] John 17:26 (NET)

[9] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[10] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[11] Pausanias’ description of the Chest of Kypselos and other items at Olympia

[12] Pausanias’ description of the Chest of Kypselos and other items at Olympia

[13] 1 Kings 22:19-23; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4; Ephesians 2:1-3 (NET)

[14] http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/HoraDike.html

[15] ibid

[16] I am very confused whether this is still future are already past: Then the seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!”  So he said to them, “I saw Satan (σατανᾶν, a form of Σατανᾶς) fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:17, 18 NET)

[17] http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/HoraDike.html

[18] ibid

[19] Colossians 1:9-13 (NET)

[20] Then the demons (δαίμονες, a form of δαίμων) begged him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” (Matthew 8:31 NET)

[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(classical_mythology)

[22] http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Dikaiosyne.html

[23] Matthew 8:28 (NET)

[24] ἔχων [2192] δαιμόνια (literally, “had demons”)

[25] Luke 8:27 (NET)

[26] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(classical_mythology)

[27] Acts 10:34, 35 (NET)

[28] 1 Timothy 1:15 (NET)

[29] Luke 5:32 (NET)

[30] https://religiousmind.net/2012/10/07/romans-part-23/; https://religiousmind.net/2012/08/04/romans-part-7/; https://religiousmind.net/2012/06/12/pauls-religious-mind/; https://religiousmind.net/2013/04/17/romans-part-42/

[31] 1 John 5:17a (NET)

[32] Romans 2:6, 8 (NET)

[33] 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (NET)

[34] Romans 9:14-16 (NET)

[35] Romans 11:29-32 (NET)

[36] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NET)

[37] 1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NET)

[38] Romans 5:17 (NET)

[39] Titus 3:4-6 (NET)

Romans, Part 60

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Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer.[1]  I want to look at this as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  To begin I’ve made the following table.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

Joy (χαρὰ)
I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.

John 15:11 (NET)

 I have great confidence in you; I take great pride on your behalf.  I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy in the midst of all our suffering.

2 Corinthians 7:4 (NET)
Love (ἀγάπη) is…

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NET)

 …not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.

1 Corinthians 13:6 (NET)

 

[Love] hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:7b (NET)
And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Matthew 18:13 (NET)

 Returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’

Luke 15:6 (NET)

 Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17 (NET)
This Love Without Hypocrisy…

Romans 12:9-21 (NET)

 Rejoice (χαίροντες, a form of χαίρω) in hope (ἐλπίδι, a form of ἐλπίς), endure (ὑπομένοντες, a form of ὑπομένω) in suffering (θλίψει, a form of θλίψις)…

Romans 12:12a (NET)

 …persist (προσκαρτεροῦντες, a form of προσκαρτερέω) in prayer.

Romans 12:12b (NET)
So they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

Acts 5:41 (NET) Table

 

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13 (NET)

 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Mark 13:13b (NET)[2]

 

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:3, 4 (NET)

 They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42 (NET)

The Greek word translated rejoice is χαίροντες (a form of χαίρω).  The aspect of the fruit of the Spirit that fulfills this rejoicing is joy (χαρὰ).  Joy (χαρά) and gladness will come to you,[3] an angel of the Lord prophesied to Zechariah the priest.  He and his wife Elizabeth did not have a child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both very old.[4]  Zechariah…your prayer has been heard, the angel said, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son; you will name him John.[5]

Clearly χαρά was used to name this ordinary joy, but I won’t spend much time on that.  I don’t have any problem rejoicing when I get my way, when I get what I want.  To rejoice in hope indicates that I rejoice prior to that time.  For the joy (χαρᾶς, a form of χαρά) set out for him [Jesus] endured (ὑπέμεινεν, a form of ὑπομένω) the cross, disregarding its shame.[6]

I’ve misunderstood this verse often enough, thinking that joy was simply a euphemism for a seat at the right hand of the throne of God.[7]  And so, enduring difficulties was a rational calculation based on faith in a given outcome (e.g., I can endure the University because in the end I will get a degree and a higher paying job).  I have no real reason to ignore faith (πίστις) here.  Faith is another aspect of the fruit of Christ’s Spirit.  But I’m not a fun guy to be around when I’m enduring difficult circumstances by faith in a rational outcome.  And I certainly won’t do any rejoicing until I get what I want.

More to the point, perhaps, a seat at the right hand of the throne of God offered Jesus no upward mobility: And now, Father, He prayed, glorify me at your side with the glory I had with you before the world was created.[8]  It was simply a matter of getting back to where He belonged, not much incentive to endure the cross, disregarding its shame.  It leads me to believe that the joy set out for him was much more than a euphemism for something else.

I have told you these things so that my joy (χαρὰ) may be in you, and your joy (χαρὰ) may be complete (πληρωθῇ, a form of πληρόω).[9]  Here is a statement, if I will hear it, that the joy set out for Jesus may be in me, and his joy will πληρωθῇ (or, fulfill) my joy.  Interestingly, this statement resides in a passage about bearing fruit (John 15:5, 7-9 NET Table).

I am the vine; you are the branches.  The one who remains in me – and I in him – bears much fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός), because apart from me you can accomplish nothing…If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.  My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός) and show that you are my disciples.  Just as the Father has loved (ἠγάπησεν, a form of ἀγαπάω) me, I have also loved (ἠγάπησα, another form of ἀγαπάω) you; remain in my love (ἀγάπῃ, a form of ἀγάπη).

But the fruit (καρπὸς) of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη), joy (χαρὰ), peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις), gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.[10]  I would love to say that I heard these words and was transformed by them.  But what I heard was, If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.[11]  And I reasoned that there was no way around it, a sinner like I am must man-up and out-Pharisee the Pharisees or burn[12] in hell for all eternity: For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.[13]

Failing that, I heard, My commandment is this – to love (ἀγαπᾶτε, another form of ἀγαπάω) one another just as I have loved (ἠγάπησα, another form of ἀγαπάω) you.[14]  Eureka!  I found it, I thought.  A sinner like I am can’t out-Pharisee the Pharisees by trying to keep rules; a sinner like I am out-Pharisees the Pharisees by trying to love like Jesus: Love (ἀγάπη) does no wrong to a neighbor.  Therefore love (ἀγάπη) is the fulfillment (πλήρωμα) of the law.[15]

No one has greater love (ἀγάπην, a form of ἀγάπη) than this, Jesus continued, that one lays down his life for his friends.[16]  As a hypocrite I thought like an actor: I should imitate Jesus’ love.  Failing that, I began to hear again (John 15:14-17 NET).

You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand (οἶδεν, a form of εἴδω) what his master is doing.  But I have called you friends, because I have revealed (ἐγνώρισα, a form of γνωρίζω) to you everything I heard from my Father.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit (καρπὸν, a form of καρπός), fruit (καρπὸς) that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.  This I command you – to love (ἀγαπᾶτε, another form of ἀγαπάω) one another.

There it was again, to go and bear fruit.  Okay, if imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery, what do You want?  to love one another just as I have loved you.  How did You love?  I made known your name to them, Jesus prayed to his Father, and I will continue to make it known, so that the love (ἀγάπη) you have loved (ἠγάπησας, another form of ἀγαπάω) me with may be in them, and I may be in them.[17]   But the fruit (καρπὸς) of the Spirit is love (ἀγάπη)…[18]

There it was, hiding in plain sight.  It wasn’t a “modern” translation: And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.[19]  It was there from the beginning of the translation of the Bible into English.  Why was it so difficult to hear?  Why did I doubt it?  My answer to that question is the religious mind.  There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death.[20]

I have great confidence (παρρησία, a form of παῤῥησία) in you; I take great pride (καύχησις) on your behalf, [21] Paul wrote the Corinthians.  The confidence he wrote about was a “freedom in speaking” an “unreservedness in speech,” according to the definition of παρρησία in the NET.  I think this refers to the boasting he wrote about later in the same letter: I keep boasting (καυχῶμαι, a form of καυχάομαι) to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, that Achaia has been ready to give since last year, and your zeal to participate has stirred up most of them.[22]

What really interests me in this context is what he wrote next:  I am filled with encouragement (παρακλήσει, a form of παράκλησις); I am overflowing with joy (χαρᾷ, a form of χαρὰ) in the midst of all our suffering (θλίψει, a form of θλίψις).[23]  So even as he was concerned whether the Corinthians’ haste would be timely enough—if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated[24]—he was overflowing with the joy set out for Jesus.  The Greek word παρακλήσει (a form of παράκλησις) translated encouragement relates to the παράκλητος as κλητός relates to κλῆσις and καλέω.  But the Advocate (παράκλητος), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.[25]

Love (ἀγάπη) is not glad (χαίρει, another form of χαίρω) about injustice.[26]  I’ll spend some time here focused on the injustice (ἀδικίᾳ, a form of ἀδικία) love is not glad (or, does not rejoice)[27] about (ἐπὶ, a form of ἐπί).  The person who speaks on his own authority, Jesus said, desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness (ἀδικία) in him.[28]  In Greek it reads, ὁ ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ λαλῶν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν ζητεῖ (literally, “this from himself speaks the honor his own seeks”).

I realize Jesus is the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him…a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him..  Still, I find some guidance here for Bible study.  School is easy if you seek to make good grades.  All that stuff the professor jabbers on about all semester is the answer to the questions on the tests.  Remember it, feed it back, get a good grade.  The kiss of death is to actually become interested in the subject matter.  When that happens to me I get my own ideas about the questions and their answers, and I tend to speak from myself.  In other words, I disagree with the professor’s answers to his or her own questions on tests.

The academic alternative to speaking from myself is to quote recognized authorities.  That’s how I began my Bible study adventure.  But eventually it dawned on me that the Ἰουδαίοις (a form of  Ἰουδαῖος) did that faithfully.  The problem with that procedure was that Jesus appeared and declared their recognized authorities wrong.

Matthew Mark
Then Pharisees and experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said, “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders?  For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”

Matthew 15:1, 2 (NET)

 

 The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?”

Mark 7:5 (NET)
He answered them, “And why do you disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?

Matthew 15:3 (NET)

 He also said to them, “You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition.

Mark 7:9 (NET)
For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” he does not need to honor his father.’  You have nullified the word of God on account of your tradition.

Matthew 15:4-6 (NET)

 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’  But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’ (that is, a gift for God), then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother.  Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.  And you do many things like this.”

Mark 7:10-13 (NET)
Hypocrites!  Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Matthew 15:7-9 (NET)

 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’

Mark 7:6, 7 (NET)
Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.”

Mark 7:8 (NET)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.[29]  On the surface it sounds like a simple enough works religion, until I hear one of his judgments: On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?’ [Table] Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.  Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’[30]

What’s a sinner saved by grace to do?  My best answer to date is, be a sinner saved by grace.  Yes, I’m speaking from myself as opposed to quoting recognized authorities.  But I’m not seeking honor for me.  I am seeking honor for Jesus and his Father, Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God – he has seen the Father.[31]  Still Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.[32]  I have come to Jesus.[33]  I’m not entirely comfortable saying I am a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness (ἀδικία) in me, except in that sense that Paul wrote about of faith in the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.[34]   I am on that path.

I’ll pick this up again in the next essay.

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Also: Matthew 10:22; 24:13 (NET)

[3] Luke 1:14a (NET)

[4] Luke 1:7 (NET)

[5] Luke 1:13 (NET)

[6] Hebrews 12:2b (NET)

[7] Hebrews 12:2c (NET)

[8] John 17:5 (NET)

[9] John 15:11 (NET)

[10] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[11] John 15:10 (NET)

[12] John 15:6 (NET)

[13] Matthew 5:20 (NET)

[14] John 15:12 (NET)

[15] Romans 13:10 (NET)

[16] John 15:13 (NET)

[17] John 17:26 (NET)

[18] Galatians 5:22a (NET)

[19] John 17:26 (KJV)

[20] Proverbs 14:12 (NET)

[21] 2 Corinthians 7:4a (NET)

[22] 2 Corinthians 9:2b (NET)

[23] 2 Corinthians 7:4b (NET)

[24] 2 Corinthians 9:4 (NET)

[25] John 14:26 (NET)

[26] 1 Corinthians 13:6a (NET)

[27] 1 Corinthians 13:6 (NASB)

[28] John 7:18 (NET)

[29] 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NET)

[30] Matthew 7:22, 23 (NET)

[31] John 6:46 (NET)

[32] John 6:44a (NET)

[33] modus ponens

[34] Romans 4:17b (NET)

Romans, Part 59

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The most obvious translation of Do not lag in zeal[1] (τῇ σπουδῇ μὴ ὀκνηροί) is something like “this haste not slothful.”  Thus we urged Titus, Paul wrote the Corinthians, that, just as he had previously begun this work, so also he should complete this act of kindness for you.  But as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness (σπουδῇ) and in the love from us that is in you – make sure that you excel in this act of kindness too.  I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness (σπουδῆς, a form of σπουδή) of others.[2]

The translation of σπουδῇ and σπουδῆς as eagerness above is not wrong if I recognize that Paul’s concern was the timeliness of completing this act of kindness rather than an emotional affect.  Certainly Paul was also interested in the Corinthians’ emotional affect, but he used a different word for that (2 Corinthians 8:10b-12 NET):

It is to your advantage, since you made a good start last year both in your giving and your desire to give, to finish what you started, so that just as you wanted to do it eagerly (προθυμία), you can also complete it according to your means.  For if the eagerness (προθυμία) is present, the gift itself is acceptable according to whatever one has, not according to what he does not have.

The Greek words σπουδῇ and σπουδῆς seem to refer here to the fact that the Corinthians made a good start last year but had failed thus far to finish what [they] started.  I know your eagerness (προθυμίαν, a form of προθυμία) to help,[3] Paul assured them.  The Corinthians’ προθυμία and προθυμίαν were not at issue.  It was σπουδῇ and σπουδῆς they lacked or needed to address (2 Corinthians 9:2b-4 NET):

I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, that Achaia has been ready to give since last year, and your zeal (ζῆλος) to participate has stirred up most of them.  But I am sending these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready just as I kept telling them.  For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you.

As a description of love “this haste not slothful” makes a good deal of sense.  A feigned or hypocritical love, the love of an actor, wearing a false face, speaking another’s lines, will tend to be too fast or too slow in action.  While the Love…without hypocrisy (ἀνυπόκριτος),[4] the fruit of the Holy Spirit, is timely, at a measured pace, this haste not slothful, full of the recognition that love unfeigned lasts a lifetime and beyond.

“This haste not slothful,” however, makes a terrible rule.  Here is a listing of various English translations.

Romans 12:11a

Bible Version
Never be lacking in zeal… New International Version
Never be lazy… New Living Translation
Do not be slothful in zeal… English Standard Bible
Do not become apathetic… Berean Study Bible
not lagging in diligence… Berean Literal Bible
not lagging behind in diligence… New American Standard Bible, NASB 1977
Not slothful in business… King James Bible, KJV 2000, American KJV, Webster’s Bible Translation
Do not lack diligence… Holman Christian Standard Bible
Never be lazy in showing such devotion. International Standard Version
Be diligent and do not be lazy… Aramaic Bible in Plain English, GOD’S WORD Translation
not slothful in earnest care… Jubilee Bible 2000
in diligence not slothful… American Standard Version, English Revised Version
In carefulness not slothful. Douay-Rheims Bible
as to diligent zealousness, not slothful… Darby Bible Translation
Do not be indolent when zeal is required. Weymouth New Testament
not lagging in diligence… World English Bible
in the diligence not slothful… Young’s Literal Translation

I won’t take issue with translating σπουδῇ (a form of σπουδή) abstractly as diligent or diligence: if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence (ὁ προϊστάμενος ἐν σπουδῇ).[5]  I do question translating it zeal or zealousness.  Paul did not write ζῆλος.  Matthew, Mark and John recounted two different occasions when Jesus demonstrated a godly zeal.

Matthew

 Mark

John
Then Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple courts, and turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.

Matthew 21:12 (NET)

 Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

Mark 11:15, 16 (NET)

 Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  He found in the temple courts those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables.  So he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

John 2:13-15 (NET)
And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are turning it into a den of robbers!”

Matthew 21:13 (NET)

 Then he began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!”

Mark 11:17 (NET)

 To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!”

John 2:16 (NET)

 
The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.

Mark 11:18 (NET)

 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal (ζῆλος) for your house will devour me.”

John 2:17 (NET)

 

Paul actually distinguished between this kind of zeal and love: Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline or with love (ἀγάπῃ, a form of ἀγάπη) and a spirit of gentleness?[6]  And though I have no doubt that Jesus consciously fulfilled Scripture, the incidents were also remarkable because they were uncharacteristic and atypical of Him.  The religious mind is all too eager to consider hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, and envying[7] righteous indignation or zeal for God.  Paul gave no law encouraging the religious mind not to lag in this kind of zeal.

The description continues, be enthusiastic in spirit (τῷ πνεύματι ζέοντες [a form of ζέω]), literally “this spirit boils” or “this boiling spirit.”  If I put it back together I have, this haste not slothful, this boiling spirit.  These words make sense if applied to a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria.[8]  He was an eloquent speaker, well-versed in the scriptures.  He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm (ζέων, another form of ζέω) he spoke and taught accurately the facts about Jesus (KJV: the Lord), although he knew only the baptism of John.[9]

The danger of this kind of enthusiasm wasn’t actually revealed until the next chapter of Acts:  Paul found some disciples in Ephesus and said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”  They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”[10] It gives me a different impression when Apollos began to speak out fearlessly (παρρησιάζεσθαι, a form of παῤῥησιάζομαι) in the synagogue.[11]  I contrast it to Paul and Barnabas in Iconium, παρρησιαζόμενοι ἐπὶ τῷ κυρίῳ (literally, “speaking freely upon the Lord”).  Here, I think, Paul and Barnabas relied on the Lord rather than their own “fearlessness” and He testified to the message of his grace, granting miraculous signs and wonders to be performed through their hands.[12]

Priscilla and Aquila, who had spent time with Paul,[13] slowed Apollos’ haste (without dampening his enthusiasm): when Priscilla and Aquila heard him [speak out fearlessly in the synagogue], they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately.[14]  Apollos traveled from Ephesus to Achaia.  When he arrived, he assisted greatly those who had believed by grace,[15] the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers[16] who had responded to Paul’s presentation of the Gospel.[17]  (No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, Jesus said, and I will raise him up at the last day.[18])  Apollos greatly assisted them, not by browbeating them to live better lives, but by preoccupying those who might have done so: for he refuted the Jews (Ἰουδαίοις, a form of  Ἰουδαῖος) vigorously in public debate, demonstrating from the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.[19]

This haste not slothful, this boiling spirit, serve (δουλεύοντες, a form of δουλεύω) the Lord,[20] or serving the Lord,[21] or “this Lord enslaved,” or “enslaved to this Lord.”  Ordinarily I might think of being enslaved as a negative thing.  But Paul compared the slavery of righteousness to the slavery of sin (admittedly, speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh), just as you once presented your members as slaves (δοῦλα, a form of δοῦλος) to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves (δοῦλα, a form of δοῦλος) to righteousness leading to sanctification.[22]

For we too were once foolish, Paul wrote to Titus, disobedient, misled, enslaved (δουλεύοντες, a form of δουλεύω) to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.[23]  If I think of serving (δουλεύοντες, a form of δουλεύω) the Lord or being enslaved to the Lord as something like the work I do to please my employer, I will think that I am obeying a rule: serve the Lord.  If on the other hand I think of serving (δουλεύοντες, a form of δουλεύω) the Lord or being enslaved to the Lord as something more like being enslaved (δουλεύοντες, a form of δουλεύω) to various passions and desires, well, that’s more like what I did on the weekends after work.

And I think that is more like the δουλεύοντες Paul described here, the natural (super-natural) outpouring of this boiling spirit.  In fact, I should work for my employer in this same way and not like I used to work before I was enslaved to the Lord.  Slaves, obey (ὑπακούετε, a form of ὑπακούω) your human masters with fear and trembling, Paul wrote the Ephesians, in the sincerity (ἁπλότητι, a form of ἁπλότης) of your heart (καρδίας, a form of καρδία) as to Christ, not like those who do their work only when someone is watching – as people-pleasers – but as slaves (δοῦλοι, a form of δοῦλος) of Christ doing the will of God from the heart (ψυχῆς, a form of ψυχή).  Obey with enthusiasm (εὐνοίας, a form of εὔνοια), as though serving (δουλεύοντες, a form of δουλεύω) the Lord and not people…[24]

Part of the definition of ἁπλότητι in the NET is “free from pretence and hypocrisy,” “not self seeking.”  This ἁπλότητι comes from the love that is not self-serving.[25]  All of this is accomplished as slaves (δοῦλοι, a form of δοῦλος) of Christ, not as someone in some wretched social condition but as one whose attitudes and actions are produced by the fruit of the Holy Spirit: For the love of Christ controls (συνέχει, a form of συνέχω) us…[26]  Doing the will of God from the heart[27]…with enthusiasm (or, good will), as[28]… serving (or, enslaved to) the Lord and not people.  We have died to what controlled (κατειχόμεθα, a form of κατέχω) us, so that we may serve (δουλεύειν, a form of δουλεύω) in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.[29]

And so I have, “this haste not slothful, this boiling spirit, enslaved to the Lord.”  Transforming a description of Love…without hypocrisy into three rules—Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord—may be equivalent to the παρρησιάζεσθαι of Apollos in the synagogue, but it will never rival the παρρησιαζόμενοι ἐπὶ τῷ κυρίῳ of Paul and Barnabas in Iconium.  For it lacks all the power of God.

[1] Romans 12:11a (NET)

[2] 2 Corinthians 8:6-8 (NET)

[3] 2 Corinthians 9:2a (NET)

[4] Romans 12:9a (NET)

[5] Romans 12:8 (NET)

[6] 1 Corinthians 4:21b (NET)

[7] Galatians 5:19, 20 (NET)

[8] Acts 18:24a (NET)

[9] Acts 18:24b, 25 (NET) Table

[10] Acts 19:2 (NET)

[11] Acts 18:26a (NET)

[12] Acts 14:3 (NET)

[13] Acts 18:2, 3 (NET)

[14] Acts 18:26b (NET)

[15] Acts 18:27b (NET)

[16] 1 Corinthians 6:9b, 10a (NET) Table

[17] 1 Corinthians 6:11 (NET)

[18] John 6:44 (NET)

[19] Acts 18:28 (NET)

[20] Romans 12:11 (NET) Table

[21] Romans 12:11 (NAS)

[22] Romans 6:19 (NET)

[23] Titus 3:3 (NET)

[24] Ephesians 6:5-7 (NET)

[25] 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NET)

[26] 2 Corinthians 5:14a (NET)

[27] The NET note on obey in verse 7: “Though the verb does not appear again at this point in the passage, it is nonetheless implied and supplied in the English translation for the sake of clarity.”

[28] I don’t see anything to translate though in the Greek.  This is not something to be faked as though, but is the real righteousness of God, the love that is the fulfillment of the law..

[29] Romans 7:6b (NET)

Romans, Part 58

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In this essay I’ll continue looking at the aftermath of Jesus feeding five thousand plus people in the light of his assessment of the Jewish leaders (Ἰουδαῖοι, a form of Ἰουδαῖος)[1] as an answer to how the Father seeking his own is not self-seeking.  And ultimately it is a continuing part of my attempt to view—Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord[2]—as a definition of love (ἀγάπη) rather than as rules.  Jesus spoke to those who followed Him not because [they] saw miraculous signs, but because [they] ate all the loaves of bread [they] wanted[3] after they began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven”[4] (John 6:43-45 NET):

Do not complain about me to one another.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.  It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’  Everyone who hears and learns from (παρὰ) the Father comes to me.

As I’ve written elsewhere the translation draws may be understating the case a bit if I think in terms of the hymn, “Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling.”[5]  The Greek word ἑλκύσῃ (a form of ἑλκύω) translated draws above means something more like drags more often than not in the New Testament.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me [drags] him gives a little different picture of the situation.

Jesus’ summary of the prophets—‘And they will all be taught by God’—was translated as follows in the KJV: And they shall be all taught of God.  Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.[6]  To a contemporary ear this may sound like “they will all be taught about God” and “Everyone who has heard and learned about the Father, comes to Jesus.”  The editors of the NKJV, aware of this quirk of contemporary English, clarified the meaning of the text:  ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’  Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.[7]  And it becomes doubly clear when I recognize that Jesus, the Holy Spirit and John felt the need to include the parenthetical: Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from (παρὰ) God – he has seen the Father.[8]

I don’t want to pass by too quickly without examining Jesus’ summary of the prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’  A note in the NET claimed this as a quotation of Isaiah 54:13.  So I’ll look at that chapter a bit (Isaiah 54:4-13a NET):

Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!  Don’t be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated!  You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth; you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment.  For your husband is the one who made you – the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who commands armies is his name.  He is your protector, the Holy One of Israel.  He is called “God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהי) of the entire earth.”

“Indeed, the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, אלהיך).  “For a short time I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you.  In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily, but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,” says your protector, the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).

“As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood would never again cover the earth.  In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.  Even if the mountains are removed and the hills displaced, my devotion will not be removed from you, nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), the one who has compassion on you.

“O afflicted one, driven away, and unconsoled!  Look, I am about to set your stones in antimony and I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.  I will make your pinnacles out of gems, your gates out of beryl, and your outer wall out of beautiful stones.  All your children will be followers of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)…

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.  And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”[9]

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.  It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt.  For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds.  I will be their God (ʼĕlôhı̂ym, לאלהים) and they will be my people.

“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me.  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה).  “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done” [Table].

The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) has made a promise to Israel.  He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day and the moon and stars to give light by night.  He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll.  He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) who rules over all.[10]

A note in the NET acknowledges that, Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me, might have been translated “listens to the Father and learns.”  The latter translation actually fits the Greek word order (πᾶς ὁ ἀκούσας παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μαθὼν ἔρχεται πρὸς ἐμέ) better than the former.  I’m pleasantly surprised that it was translated as it was.

A narrow path is created by 1) No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; 2) ‘And they will all be taught by God;’ and 3) Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.  I definitely relate this to, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (ρήματα, a form of ῥῆμα) of God.[11]  If everyone who hears from God also learns from God, they will all be taught by God carries a different weight than everyone who hears from God must learn on his own to come to Jesus.[12]

I found a thoughtful sermon online from John Piper that accurately portrays the teaching of my religion:

In John 6:44, Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And in John 12:32, Jesus says, “I will draw all people to myself.” So John 6:44 teaches, I argued last week, that the Father draws people triumphantly to the Son, and all whom he draws come, because the drawing is decisive. And John 12:32 teaches that Jesus draws all to himself.[13]

The solution to this dilemma (dilemma because my religion rejects the notion of universal salvation) is that all in John 12:32 (NET)—And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself—does not mean all people (people is not in the original text).  All means “all the children of God” or “all of my sheep.”[14]  To my mind this limitation disregards, Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”[15]

If the Lord does not wish (βουλόμενος, a form of βούλομαι) for any to perish but for all to come to repentance,[16] we need to consider these “couplets,” as I think of them, in another way.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him;[17] And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.[18]  So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy;[19] For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[20]  And consider these in the light of his unilateral declaration: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.[21]

All the Lord has to do is declare that these words justify Him to call as many, up to and including all, to repentance as He desires and John Piper and I have no way to contradict Him.  There are three reasons I won’t go all the way and say I believe in universal salvation: 1) I have no standing to tell the Lord He must save all; 2) my own theory how this might be possible, that universal salvation entails universal condemnation, while intellectually satisfying, is emotionally horrifying; and 3) it seems to me that the arguments of Scripture lock me out from determining such a thing at the same time they free me to pray for “the mercy on which everything depends, for it does not depend on human desire or exertion but on You who shows mercy, and You have consigned all to disobedience so that You may show mercy to all.”

Jesus continued (John 6:47-51 NET):

I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life (Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς).  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever.  The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Then the Ἰουδαῖοι began to argue with one another, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”[22]  The Church’s answer to their question was Transubstantiation.  If Transubstantiation is Jesus’ answer, too, then He might have said: “You will walk to the front of the congregation and kneel before the priest who will give you a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, the substance of which he has changed into my literal body and blood respectively, but it will still look and taste like bread and wine.”  And I’ll read what He actually said in that light (John 6:53-58 NET):

I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.  The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink [Table].  The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died.  The one who eats this bread will live forever.

In this case I would assume that Jesus deliberately used offensive language to thin the herd of his followers.  If, on the other hand, I believe that Jesus’ answer to their question—How can this man give us his flesh to eat?—came later in the text when He spoke privately with his disciples, I will have a different perspective: The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature (σὰρξ) is of no help![23]  The words (ρήματα, a form of ῥῆμα) that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.[24]

I may still wonder if He spoke something like a parable that may have been misunderstood by others, that He explained to his core disciples, but I also recognize that He spoke of something deeper than my ability to learn in my natural self from spiritual teaching.  And I recall that the concept of eating the words of God was familiar to Jesus’ audience (Ezekiel 3:1-4 NET):

He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you see in front of you – eat this scroll – and then go and speak to the house of Israel.”  So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll.

He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving to you.”  So I ate it, and it was sweet like honey in my mouth.

He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.”

In this case his hearers may not have been offended because they thought Jesus spoke of cannibalism.  They understood his allusion.  They were offended because Jesus didn’t hand them the law of Moses to eat, but Himself and his own teaching as the Spirit words to be ingested.  They rejected Him not because they were confused but because they understood Him perfectly and their hearts were hardened (Ezekiel 3:5-7 NET):

For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel – not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand – surely if I had sent you to them, they would listen to you!  But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.

 After this many of his disciples quit following him and did not accompany him any longer.  So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”[25]

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go?  You have the words (ρήματα, a form of ῥῆμα) of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!”[26] 

If Jesus were only seeking those who have come to believe and to know that [He is] the Holy One of God, then I’m not sure if that would be self-serving or not.  If He is serious about seeking those who are his own in name only but in actual point of fact are hardened and reject Him, it is clear that seeking his own is not self-seeking, but clearly an act of the love that is not self-serving.[27]

[1] John 5:16-47 (NET) Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders (Ἰουδαῖοι) began persecuting him (verse 16) [Table].

[2] Romans 12:11 (NET) Table

[3] John 6:26 (NET)

[4] John 6:41 (NET)

[5] http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Softly_and_Tenderly/

[6] John 6:45 (KJV)

[7] John 6:45 (NKJV)

[8] John 6:46 (NET)

[9] Romans 11:26, 27 (NET)

[10] Jeremiah 31:31-35 (NET)

[11] Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

[12] Even the KJV translators chose this path: Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me (John 6:45b KJV).  Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me (John 6:45b NKJV).  I’m afraid I would have assumed in the past that learned was my own work, to blunt the impact of And they will all be taught by God (e.g., only those who learned by whatever wisdom or virtue they possessed innately would benefit from being taught by God or having heard from God).

[13] http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/they-will-all-be-taught-of-god

[14] http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/they-will-all-be-taught-of-god

[15] Romans 3:4 (NET)

[16] 2 Peter 3:9b (NET)

[17] John 6:44a (NET)

[18] John 12:32 (NET)

[19] Romans 9:16 (NET) Table

[20] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[21] Romans 9:15 (NET)

[22] John 6:52 (NET)

[23] ἡ σὰρξ οὐκ ὠφελεῖ οὐδέν appears almost as a double negative: “the flesh, no, it assists (is useful, advantageous or profitable, to) no one.”

[24] John 6:63 (NET)

[25] John 6:66, 67 (NET)

[26] John 6:68, 69 (NET)

[27] 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NET)

Romans, Part 57

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In this essay I’m looking at the aftermath of Jesus feeding five thousand plus people in the light of his assessment of the Jewish leaders (Ἰουδαῖοι, a form of Ἰουδαῖος)[1] as an answer to how the Father seeking his own is not self-seeking.  And ultimately it is a continuing part of my attempt to view—Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord[2]—as a definition of love (ἀγάπη) rather than as rules.  Matthew and Mark end this thread of their narratives focused on people who did not eat from the five loaves and two fish.

Matthew

Mark
After they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.  When the people there recognized him, they sent word into all the surrounding area, and they brought all their sick to him.  They begged him if they could only touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Matthew 14:34-36 (NET)

 After they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and anchored there.  As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized Jesus.  They ran through that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever he was rumored to be.  And wherever he would go – into villages, towns, or countryside – they would place the sick in the marketplaces, and would ask him if they could just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Mark 6:53-56 (NET)

John grappled with the more distressing story of many who did eat from the five loaves and two fish (John 6:22-24 NET).

The next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the lake realized that only one small boat had been there, and that Jesus had not boarded it with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.  But some boats from Tiberias came to shore near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.  So when the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”[3]

Jesus didn’t answer their question.  Instead He said to those who were part of the crowd… following him because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick,[4] who saw the miraculous sign that Jesus performed, [and] began to say to one another, “This is certainly the Prophet who is to come into the world,”[5] who were going to come and seize him by force to make him king:[6] I tell you the solemn truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs (σημεῖα, a form of σημεῖον), but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted.[7]

They didn’t argue with Him about it.  In fact, they said something a bit later that confirms his assessment of their motives.[8]  And I’m reminded of Mark’s Gospel narrative, they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.[9]  Who and what did they believe instead of Jesus?

I’ll hazard a guess that they were afraid (ἐφοβοῦντο, a form of φοβέω) of the Jewish (Ἰουδαίους, a form of Ἰουδαῖος) religious leaders.  For the Jewish leaders (Ἰουδαῖοι, another form of Ἰουδαῖος) had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.[10]  We are disciples of Moses, the Ἰουδαῖοι said.  We know that God has spoken to Moses!  We do not know where this man comes from![11]

Jesus didn’t walk into anyone’s place of employment, interrupt him and say, Do not work for the food that disappears.  Instead, He said it to those who had spent their time, their effort and their money to follow Him not because [they] saw miraculous signs, but because [they] ate all the loaves of bread [they] wanted: Do not work for the food that disappears, but for the food that remains to eternal life – the food which the Son of Man will give to you.  For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.[12]

I played the organ, and sometimes the piano, at a downtown mission the summer after I got my driver’s license.  The man who ran the mission was a nice enough guy in everyday life but an angry[13] preacher.  I felt sorry for the homeless men, sometimes a few women, sitting through that angry tirade everyday for the free meal that followed.  But as I look at it in this light, maybe they got what they paid for, indigestion.

Those who followed Jesus not because [they] saw miraculous signs, but because [they] ate all the loaves of bread [they] wanted seemed to grasp his meaning when He told them to work… for the food that remains to eternal life.

What must we do to accomplish the deeds God requires?[14] they asked.

This is the deed God requires, Jesus answered, to believe in the one whom he sent.[15]

They understood that Jesus claimed to be the one God sent: Then what miraculous sign will you perform, so that we may see it and believe you?  What will you do?[16]  Here they unmasked themselves, for they already had a sign in mind.  Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[17]  In other words, give us more free food and we’ll believe you.

I’m going to hazard another guess that what they really wanted wasn’t free food.  What they really wanted was confirmation of their own goodness and acceptability in God’s sight (Deuteronomy 28:12, 13 NET):

The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.  The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments which I am urging you today to be careful to do.

Let me put this back in perspicuous form:  If you obey his commandments, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail.  If you obey his commandments, you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom.  Those who followed Jesus not because [they] saw miraculous signs, but because [they] ate all the loaves of bread [they] wanted didn’t feel like they were the head, at the top, under Roman rule.  It was a jarring, glaring, living example of denying the consequent, modus tollens, a deductively valid argument that they were not obeying the Lord’s commandments.  And it wasn’t from a lack of trying.  That needs to be clearly understood.

The Jewish Encyclopedia online defines Zealots (Hebrew, Ḳanna’im) as follows: “Zealous defenders of the Law and of the national life of the Jewish people; name of a party opposing with relentless rigor any attempt to bring Judea under the dominion of idolatrous Rome, and especially of the aggressive and fanatical war party from the time of Herod until the fall of Jerusalem and Masada. The members of this party bore also the name Sicarii, from their custom of going about with daggers (‘sicæ’) hidden beneath their cloaks, with which they would stab any one found committing a sacrilegious act or anything provoking anti-Jewish feeling.”[18]

“This unfailing ‘zeal for the Law’ became the standard of piety in the days of the Maccabean struggle against the Hellenizers. Thus it is asserted that when Mattathias slew the Jew whom he saw sacrificing to an idol, ‘he dealt zealously for the law of God, as did Phinehas[19] unto Zimri the son of Salu’; and Mattathias’ claim of descent from Phinehas implies that, like the latter, he obtained for his house the covenant of an everlasting priesthood (I Macc. ii. 24, 26, 54).”[20]

“‘Ḳanna’im’ was the name for those zealous for the honor and sanctity of the Law as well as of the sanctuary, and for this reason they at first met with the support and encouragement of the people and of the Pharisaic leaders, particularly those of the rigid school of Shammai.[21] It was only after they had been so carried away by their fanatic zeal as to become wanton destroyers of life and property throughout the land that they were denounced as heretic Galileans (Yad. iv. 8) and ‘murderers’ and that their principles were repudiated by the peace-loving Pharisees.”[22]

Jesus’ disciples were steeped in this milieu.  Lord, is this the time when you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?[23]  This question was foremost in their minds moments before Jesus’ ascension.  And Jesus’ response to his faithful followers was, You are not permitted to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…[24]

So Jesus instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit, the source of the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[25] that is the fulfillment of the law.[26]  Jesus was focused on the work his Father had sent Him to accomplish (Matthew 5:17-20 NET):

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place.  So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

So how did Jesus respond to those who followed Him not because [they] saw miraculous signs, but because [they] ate all the loaves of bread [they] wanted?

I tell you the solemn truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God (ἄρτος τοῦ θεοῦ) is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.[27]

Give us today our daily bread (ἄρτον, a form of ἄρτος).[28]  I wouldn’t alter the translation but it’s important to realize that as I pray this I’m asking, Give us today our daily Jesus, the fruit of his Spirit.  Sir (κύριε, a form of κύριος), give us this bread all the time,[29] those who followed Jesus not because [they] saw miraculous signs, but because [they] ate all the loaves of bread [they] wanted said.

Outwardly, they appeared to be doing right, following Jesus.  They said the right words: Sir (literally, Lord), give us this bread all the time.  The note in the NET reads: “The Greek κύριος (kurios) means both ‘Sir’ and ‘Lord.’ In this passage it is not at all clear at this point that the crowd is acknowledging Jesus as Lord. More likely this is simply a form of polite address (‘sir’).”  And I agree, for when Jesus clearly identified Himself as the ἄρτος τοῦ θεοῦ saying, I am the bread of life (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς),[30] they began complaining about him.[31]

I am the bread of life.  The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.  But I told you that you have seen me and still do not believe.  Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.  Now this is the will of the one who sent me – that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up at the last day.  For this is the will of my Father – for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.[32]

Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus (Ἰουδαῖοι, a form of Ἰουδαῖος) began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven…”[33]  The note in the NET reads: “Grk ‘Then the Jews.’ In NT usage the term ᾿Ιουδαῖοι (Ioudaioi) may refer to the entire Jewish people, the residents of Jerusalem and surrounding territory, the authorities in Jerusalem, or merely those who were hostile to Jesus…Here the translation restricts the phrase to those Jews who were hostile to Jesus (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e.β), since the ‘crowd’ mentioned in 6:22-24 was almost all Jewish (as suggested by their addressing Jesus as ‘Rabbi’ (6:25). Likewise, the designation ‘Judeans’ does not fit here because the location is Galilee rather than Judea.”

Yes, I get it.  The Jews who responded to Jesus this way were hostile or hardened.  There were other Jews who were not so hostile, who had heard and learned from the Father.[34]  But I think another important point that John and the Holy Spirit have made here is that it was “Jewishness” that began complaining about him because he said…  It was the religious mind, and the religious mind comes in many flavors, even scientific, even atheist, even Christian flavors.

Romans, Part 58

[1] John 5:16-47 (NET) Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders (Ἰουδαῖοι) began persecuting him (verse 16).

[2] Romans 12:11 (NET) Table

[3] John 6:25 (NET)

[4] John 6:2 (NET)

[5] John 6:14 (NET)

[6] John 6:15 (NET)

[7] John 6:26 (NET)

[8] John 6:31 (NET)

[9] Mark 6:52 (NET)

[10] John 9:22 (NET)

[11] John 9:28b, 29 (NET)

[12] John 6:27 (NET)

[13] James 1:20; 3:17, 18 (NET)

[14] John 6:28 (NET)

[15] John 6:29 (NET)

[16] John 6:30 (NET)

[17] John 6:31 (NET)

[18] Kaufmann Kohler,  ZEALOTS, Jewish Encyclopedia

[19] Numbers 25 (NET)

[20] Kaufmann Kohler,  ZEALOTS, Jewish Encyclopedia

[21] An interesting insight on Paul: Paul: At the Feet of Gamaliel?  In my zeal for God I persecuted the church (Philippians 3:6a NET).

[22] Kaufmann Kohler,  ZEALOTS, Jewish Encyclopedia

[23] Acts 1:6 (NET) Table

[24] Acts 1:7, 8a (NET) Table

[25] Galatians 5:22, 23a (NET)

[26] Romans 13:10b (NET)

[27] John 6:32, 33 (NET)

[28] Matthew 6:11 (NET)

[29] John 6:34 (NET)

[30] John 6:35a (NET)

[31] John 6:41a (NET)

[32] John 6:35-40 (NET)

[33] John 6:41 (NET)

[34] John 6:45